


Forge

by M_E_Scribbles



Series: The Trek Saga [3]
Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, End of the World, F/F, F/M, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Post-Apocalypse, Survival
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-08
Updated: 2017-06-15
Packaged: 2018-10-01 01:05:38
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 24
Words: 77,482
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10177091
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/M_E_Scribbles/pseuds/M_E_Scribbles
Summary: A year after undergoing a trek to get home, Clarke and her friends embark on a new mission. They set out to find the family they've assumed was gone forever. Unforeseen enemies throw a wrench in those plans. They're forced to remain in Ohio to fight an enemy they never really saw coming.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Welcome back to the world of Trek!

Wyoming.

Of all the possible meanings to my father’s cryptic message I’d never even considered the most obvious explanation. ‘She knows where to go’ he’d told our neighbor. That’s it. No other clues, no note, no hidden trap door leading to a room with a silver platter and a card. Nothing. Then, after spending nearly a year living in, and helping to build, a compound of cabins surrounded by walls just outside of my hometown, my sister and her boyfriend showed up and she wasted no time telling me where our family had planned on going, making me feel like the biggest idiot ever.

Of course they went to the cabin. It was secluded and stocked.

After Vaughn made her announcement she stared at me while I called myself every name I could think of in the three languages I was fluent in. Realizing she expected some kind of response, I glanced at Raven. She nodded and ran to her bedroom.

I followed her lead and headed straight to my room. Over my shoulder I said, “We’ll be ready to go tomorrow morning Vaughn. I can’t believe we didn’t think of that.”

“I’m glad you didn’t,” Vaughn called after me. “I wouldn’t have found you otherwise. Who knows where you’d be.”

I was kneeling in front of my meager little dresser, sorting through clothes and shoes, when I heard the front door slam shut. I leaned back on my heels, looking out of my bedroom to see Vaughn staring at the front door.

“Well,” she drawled as she turned to face me, “I don’t think she’s happy.”

“Who?”

“Your baby mama,” She rolled her eyes, “how did the gir convince you to help raise her kid anyway?”

Lexa. In all my excitement over knowing where my family was I’d forgotten about Lexa. I stood and ran out of my room. I knew I needed to explain Aden to Vaughn soon, but all I could think about was my girlfriend and how upset she seemed to be.

Vaughn caught me around the waist, pulling me to a stop. “Maybe you should let her cool off a bit. She looked pretty angry.”

“That doesn’t work with Lexa.” I fought against her arm, trying to pull free. I glanced over my shoulder, sending her a silent sort of begging, “Please let me go. I have to talk to her Vaughn.”

“This is about our family,” she reminded me.               

“She is my family Vaughn. Let go,” I snapped. I didn’t have time to make her understand.

After glaring at me for a full minute she freed me. I ran straight to Lexa’s cabin. First I checked her bedroom, then her office, which was really just a room with a dartboard and a desk in it, and then the loft where she liked to sit and think. I finally found her standing in the back yard, which wasn’t really much of a yard, it was just ten feet green space between the cabin and the wall where we spent a lot of time talking and planning.

“Lexa,” I approached her quietly.

She glanced at me over her shoulder. I hesitated in my advance. The hard Lexa was back. The Lexa from the first part of our trek home last year. Her eyes were hard as she clenched her jaw. After pulling in a deep breath through and releasing it even more slowly she spoke. “Griffin.”

“Any chance you feel like telling me why you stormed out?” I reached out a hand and slipped it in hers. I was instantly relieved when her fingers closed around mine. “Or am I going to have to guess?”

“You didn’t even ask me how I felt about you leaving on a cross country trip.”

I couldn’t stop my brows from coming together in confusion, “You want me to ask for permission to try and find my family?”

She rolled her eyes and took a deep breath. After letting it out slowly like she’d been counting to ten she spoke, “I don’t want you to ask for permission. I know better than that. But didn’t some part of you wonder if I was okay with it?”

“They’re my family,” I said. My reasoning was beyond obvious to me.

“You’re my family,” she insisted, her fingers squeezing mine just a little tighter.

“Woods.” I sighed.

“Don’t Woods me. Not on this!” She snapped. Her eyes went hard again for a flash before she sighed, “You are my family Clarke.”

I smiled as she echoed what I’d yelled at my sister. Reaching up, I cupped her face with my free hand, “You’re my family too.”

We kissed then. It didn’t help sort our plan out at all. But it did help me feel better.

“You do realize I’m going with you, right?” She leaned her forehead against mine.

“Of course you are. Why wouldn’t you?”

She looked genuinely confused by my response. She blinked a few times before stuttering out, “W-what?”

“That’s why you were so mad!” I rolled my eyes after realization dawned. “You thought I was just going to leave you behind.”

“Maybe.” She looked sheepish.

“You’re an idiot,” I grinned. I released her hand and lopped my arms around her neck, pulling her into a fierce hug. I pressed a kiss to her neck and smiled into her skin before pulling back to meet her eyes again, “that will never happen Woods. I had hundreds of miles to ditch you on our walk home last year. You wouldn’t go away.”

“But I thought -”

I shook my head and silenced her with a kiss, “Evermore Lexa.”

She smiled and kissed my forehead, “Evermore.”

After a quick series of kisses we separated to start preparing for our journey. We had our packs ready to go and guns cleaned by the time the sun was approaching the horizon. After Lexa and I settled Aden and Tank in his room for a nap, Vaughn asked to speak with us in the living room. Lexa, Raven, and I followed her to the couches. Octavia and Harper took the other kids to the pond to feed the ducks and to give us the time we needed to lay out our plans.

As soon as we were seated Vaughn spoke, “you know you can’t take him with us right?”

“Who?” I asked.

“The kid,” she said slowly, like that should have been obvious.

“His name is Aden,” I replied calmly. I’d had to deal with months of Aunt Callie refusing to say his name. I wasn’t about to let Vaughn fall into that habit.

“Right. Aden,” she corrected herself. “You can’t take him with us.”

Lexa brows came together in confusion, “Why?”

“He’s a kid. He’s what? Six? Seven?” Rob replied.

“He’s eight,” I answered even though I knew the question was rhetorical. “What does that have to do with anything?”

Vaughn sighed, “He’s a kid Clarke. You know he isn’t strong enough to survive this trip.”

“He’s already survived one.” Raven pointed out. “And we’re all holding out hope that Jacob survived the same trip so I’m not sure I’m seeing your point.”

“It’s going to be dangerous,” Rob replied, completely ignoring the mention of our little brother. “People are going to be desperate now. You’ve been behind these walls for a while right? Almost a year? Maybe you don’t understand the danger.”

“A few hundred miles in the spring is not the same as a thousand miles in the summer. You should know that.” Vaughn added. She arched a brow, sending her best ‘big sister’ look my way.

“He’s a small kid anyway, it just wouldn’t be an easy trip for him,” Rob piled on.

I sat back, letting Lexa and Raven argue with Vaughn and Rob. As much as I wanted to argue I took a mental step back and considered everything Vaughn and Rob were saying. I knew Aden had done well on our walk to Ohio. It had been hard and slow going because he was so small but by some miracle, he’d never so much as coughed while others were dying all around him. The only time I heard him cough was when he’d accidentally swallowed a bug. Taking him out there again would be dangerous. It would be needlessly reckless. On the other hand, if I left Aden behind he’d be safe with Harper and Octavia.

“Why are you smiling?” Lexa’s voice broke into my thoughts.

“What?” I blinked a few times, clearing the mental cobwebs.

She pointed at my sister, “They think we should leave Aden here. Tell them that isn’t happening.”

Vaughn narrowed her eyes at Lexa. She made no attempt to hide the venom in her voice when she spoke to her, “If you’re so concerned about _your son_ you could always stay back with him.”

My head snapped toward her. I’d already decided to consider leaving Aden behind, Vaughn was pushing her luck if she really thought I’d a serious moment of consideration to leaving Lexa behind as well. My response to her newest suggestion came out as a growl, “Now you think Lexa should stay back too? Is she too little for this trip?”

“Separation might do you some good,” Vaughn shrugged.

“Then maybe Rob should stay here too.” I said as I leaned back on the couch, crossing my arms over my chest and glaring at her.

“What? Why?” The confusion on Rob’s face was almost enough to make me laugh. I knew it wasn’t fair to drag him into our argument, but Vaughn had gone for blood first.

“Distance makes the heart grow fonder,” I smiled as sweetly as I could.

“He doesn’t have anyone but me. Lexa’s family is here. And she’ll have Aden to keep her company.”

“Why isn’t Rob looking for his family?” Raven interrupted our argument. She’d always been the one to jump in and attempt to defuse our fights.

Rob put his arm around Vaughn. I think he was restraining her from jumping on Raven for the interruption. “My family is in Hawai’i. I’m hoping they’re safe but I don’t have a way to get to the islands and make sure right now. At least getting to Wyoming will get me closer to them.”

“Your family is in Hawai’i. You can share mine with me. I have more than most people do.” Lexa smirked at Rob. “So you can stay here and take care of them for me while I go with Clarke to find hers.”

“Let me be clear,” Vaughn finally started using her Marine Corp voice. She was glaring at Lexa. “Rob is going. Clarke is going. Raven is going. Aden is not going. And honestly, I’d be totally okay if Lexa doesn’t go either.”

“Vaughn!” I couldn’t believe she’d come out and said it like that.

“She’s a Woods, Clarke. She’ll get over it soon. Just like she’ll be over you soon. Why drag her across the country when she doesn’t really want to go?”

“Excuse me?” Lexa questioned. She looked dumbfounded by Vaughn’s claims.

“Don’t look so shocked. Everyone knows the reputation your family has with women.”

I was on my feet before Lexa could reply. Glaring into Vaughn’s eyes I leaned over her as I spoke in my calmest voice, “Lexa is going. You can be as snarly and as nasty as you want but she’s going. And if you want this to a pleasant walk across thousands of miles, you’ll apologize to her. Now.”

Vaughn clamped her mouth shut and scowled right back. When she crossed her arms over her chest I could only shake my head.

I turned on my heel and walked away before I said something I’d regret. I heard Lexa stand to follow me outside. Before she closed the door I could hear Rob comforting Vaughn.

Lexa fell in step next to me. She took my hand, lacing our fingers loosely, and gradually slowed her pace, forcing me to slow down until we were strolling through the compound. We reached one of the guard platforms, there was a little alcove with a bench where we liked to sit and talk. I dropped onto the bench with a huff.

“I have a sneaking suspicion that your sister doesn’t like me,” Lexa smirked and nudged me with her knee pressed against mine.

I raised a brow, “only a sneaking suspicion? I thought you were smarter than that Woods.”

She snorted once. Silence enveloped us. I didn’t know how to broach the topic of Aden staying behind. I refused to even consider the idea of Lexa staying behind.

Lexa broke the silence, speaking quietly while she stood in front of me kicking at the dirt, “You know it isn’t going to happen right?”

“What isn’t going to happen?”

She met my eyes briefly before staring at the ground. “I’m not staying behind and I’m not going to get over you. Not now, not ever.”

“I know that Lexa.”

“It’d probably be an easier if I agreed to stay back with Aden.”

I hoped I looked as confused as I felt by that comment. “Easier for who?”

“Your sister doesn’t like me,” She reminded, a smirk pulled at her lips but sadness drifted into her eyes.

“My sister doesn’t know you,” I replied quickly. I didn’t like where her mind was heading.

Lexa sat on the bench next to me. She grabbed my feet and pulled them into her lap. For a minute she just looked at me, her hands rubbing my lower legs. Slowly she reached up and cupped my face in her hand. Her thumb moving back and forth over the scar on my cheek. It was times like that when I had a hard time meeting Lexa’s eyes. When she did things like that, when she looked at me so intently, like I was her world or the only thing she needed to survive, I knew I’d never be able to deny how much I loved her. Not that I’d ever want to.

“I don’t want to stay here, Clarke,” Her voice was too quiet to even be called a whisper.

“Oh don’t worry, you’re going with me.” I said. I had no intention of leaving her in Ohio, no matter what Vaughn said.

“I don’t want to leave Aden here either,” She added. I looked away, not knowing how to respond. Her hand dropped from my face to my knee. “Clarke?”

“I think Vaughn might be right about Aden.” I mumbled, focusing on a rock sticking up out of the grass on the other side of the path.

“What?” She gasped. Her eyes were round, the emerald green vividly displaying her shock.

I sighed. There wasn’t any way to get around admitting how true Vaughn’s words had sounded to me. Rubbing my hand over my face, then dragging both hands through my hair, I took a moment to organize my thoughts before I said, “she’s right Lexa. He’s just a child. He shouldn’t have to worry about surviving another dangerous trip.”

“So you think we should abandon him?” Her hand tightened on my knee, her eyes narrowed. Her next question came from between her clenched teeth, “Just leave the kid we agreed to take care of so we can go on an adventure?”

“He’ll be safer here.” I said.

“You and I agreed to raise him Clarke. We can’t just leave him here. We can’t just dump him on Harper and Octavia and act like everything is cool.” Lexa replied coolly.

“Are you actually trying to force me into choosing between you and Aden and my family?” I questioned, my voice shifting from calm and reassuring to angry and demanding in a flash.

Lexa took a deep breath and shook her head. After releasing the breath slowly she alleged, “I thought Aden and I were your family?”

“That is not what I meant and you know it Lexa Woods! Please don’t twist my words.”

“We can’t leave him,” came Lexa’s biting reply.

I stood and started walking. I needed distance again. I needed to be able to think straight, something I had trouble doing sometimes when I was close to Lexa. I knew leaving Aden with Harper and Octavia would hurt. I knew it would be months before I’d see him. It would be months of not knowing if he was okay or happy. Of if he’d finally managed to complete the perfect cartwheel. I hated knowing he’d be sad because Lexa and I weren’t around.

“We’re a family Clarke. The three of us.” Lexa called out from the bench.

That took the wind right out of my storming away sails. I stared at the ground, the dirt and pebbles seeming to dance in the water slowly filling my eyes, “Please don’t do this Lexa. Don’t make me choose between my family and you. That isn’t fair.”

Lexa found her feet quickly and strode toward me. She put her fingertips under my chin and applied pressure, forcing my head up gently. I fought against the pressure just a little, unsure of what I’d see in her face. When my eyes met hers, Lexa just smiled sadly, “I don’t want to abandon the kid I’ve kind of come to think of as mine.”

“We aren’t abandoning him!” I replied quickly. I couldn’t think of it like that. We would leave Aden behind because it was the best choice for him; it was how he’d be safest. I reached up and pushed a lock of chestnut hair out of the green eyes I’d fallen for before continuing, “We’re searching for his surrogate aunts and uncle and grandparents. Hopefully his surrogate great-grandparents and his great-great-grandparents will be there too.”

“What if we get there and we like it so much we don’t want to come back?” She questioned.

“We’d never just leave Aden here, Lexa. We’ll come back and get him.”

She wrapped her arms around me, pulling me tightly against her. I snuggled closer and let my eyes drift shut.

“I get it but I don’t like it.” Lexa spoke into my hair.

“I hate it,” I replied. I lifted my head and smiled sadly. “I think it sucks. It’s what is best for Aden though. He’ll have Harper, Octavia, Tris, Ava, and Elle here to keep him company. And Nyko is here to look after him if he gets sick. Plus Aunt Callie has finally warmed to him, Ana and Gia wore her down. There are a lot of people here to watch over him while we look for the others.”

Lexa nodded and pressed a kiss to the tip of my nose, “I don’t like making these kinds of decisions.”

“Growing up is a trap,” I sighed.

****

We made our way back to my cabin slowly. Partly because I didn’t want to have to tell Aden he’d be staying in Oak Openings without us and partly because I wanted Vaughn to have to sit and stew over my absence. Lexa stopping every once in a while to press me against a wall and kiss me senseless was a welcomed delay too.

We didn’t acknowledge my sister or Rob when we entered; we went straight to Aden’s room, allowing the light from the candle in Lexa’s hand to illuminate the small space. Our boy was napping in bed with Tank, sprawled out like he’d been the loser in a prizefight. Lexa sat on the mattress and rubbed Aden’s back until he woke up, rubbing his eyes and yawning. I sank down next to Lexa and started talking.

The boy took the news better than we thought he would. Instead of screaming and insisting on going with us, he cried and asked why he couldn’t go too. Lexa patiently explained our reasons. I explained our concern about keeping him safe. Aden wouldn’t listen any of it. No matter what we said, he cried. He threw himself into my lap, pressing his face to my stomach as he sobbed. I ran my hands through his blond hair, whispering whatever calming words I could think of.

After explaining things over and over again but never really getting through to him, Aden sniffled and said something quietly.

“What’d you say?” Lexa asked.

Aden shifted so he was sitting on the bed between the two of us. I lowered my head enough to hear him repeat himself.

“How come you don’t ever want to see me again?”

I jerked my head back. I gathered the boy in a hug and cried. Lexa wrapped us both in her arms, burying her face in my hair.

“No! Aden, that isn’t what’s happening,” I whispered back, fighting to keep my voice from wavering. I squeezed him a little tighter as I assured him, “I always want to see you.”

“Then why are you leaving me?”

“We’ve got to go and find Clarke’s family. They’re really far away,” Lexa told him. “If we could take you with us and know you’d be safe we’d do it in a heartbeat.”

“I wouldn’t be safe?” Aden’s little voice squeaked.

I shook my head and squeezed him. “No, but if you stay here with Harper and Octavia you’ll be safe. Everyone will look after you.”

“And you know Tank will keep you extra safe.” Lexa added, her hand rubbing circles on Aden’s back.

“I get to keep Tank?” Aden perked up.

“Of course!” I promised. “As if we’d ever separate a boy from his puppy!”

“Oh!” Aden threw his arms and my neck and squeezed. “I’ll be real safe if I have Tank!”

Lexa and I watched as he jumped down from the bed and ran out of the room.

“That’s all it took?” Lexa gaped at the door. “Just tell the kid he gets to keep the dog and he’s fine?”

“He’s tougher than both of us. We don’t give him enough credit.” I couldn’t believe it either. After all the crying, all Aden needed was the promise of Tank remaining with him and he was fine. Shaking my head, I turned back to my girlfriend. I guess we’ve got nothing to worry about for tonight then.”

“Except dinner with your sister,” Lexa groaned and hid her face in my neck.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Clarke and Lexa prepare for their journey.

One benefit of living so lightly was moving took almost no time at all. We moved Harper’s things into my room so Octavia and her sister could move into our cabin while we were gone. Ava and Elle were giddy at the idea of sharing a room.

We spent the afternoon saying our goodbyes to friends and family. Aunt Callie in particular was not happy with our decision. She wanted us to stay and wait for Dad to somehow get word to us.

Finally, when the stars were out and the moon was offering a little light, I found myself surrounded by my own little family. We ate a late dinner and shared stories. Harper and I shared a couch, our legs tangled as we giggled at Lexa’s reenactment of our struggle to reach the balcony of the house from the first night of our last trip. Raven and Octavia joined in, portraying Costia and me perfectly, down the sneers and the snark, while pulling Rob into their game as Luke. Aden yawned and laughed when they asked him to be their flyer, he squirmed when Lexa pulled him down into her arms and tickled him. I couldn’t fight the smile as I took in the scene.

“So you all just had a great time getting home?” Vaughn asked.

“Not at all,” Harper shook her head.

“There was plenty of bad things that happened,” I added.

Octavia moved to sit on the arm of the couch Harper and I were occupying. She rested a hand on my shoulder and met Vaughn’s gaze, “Clarkey had to deal with a lot of crap last year Vaughn. More than she’ll ever want to tell you. But you shouldn’t underestimate her.”

“Yeah. Clarke is a badass,” Raven agreed.

Suddenly, the night became a night for my friends to tell my sister about the adventures, and misadventures, I’d had over the last year. They told her mostly of the good stuff but not much of the bad. Throughout the whole story, she stared at me. Whether she couldn’t believe the stories or she was trying to marry the idea of her kid sister doing all those things, I couldn’t tell.

After a dramatic reenactment of my tossing Costia into the river, starring me as the victim this time, I was more than ready for bed. I carried a sleepy Aden over to Lexa’s cabin and deposited him in Octavia’s old bed. I thought about joining him for a second before I shook my head and smiled. I tucked the child in and kissed his forehead. Tears sprang up when I realized I that was the last night I’d be able to complete his nighttime ritual again for a very long time. Every night we practiced the Yiddish alphabet before I told him a story. Our last night before our lengthy separation and he was snoring shortly after the princess met the troll.

I left the sleeping boy and made my way to Lexa’s room. Knowing Harper was probably already sleeping soundly in my bed, I decided to stay where I was. Not that Harper and I hadn’t shared a bed before. I’d just prefer to let her ninja the air instead of my kidneys the night before we started another epic walk. I pulled back the blankets and climbed in. I tried to wait for Lexa but soon found my eyes drifting shut.

I woke up to someone shaking my foot. I looked over my shoulder to see Lexa silhouetted by the moonlight.

“Griffin,” She whispered loudly.

“What Woods?”

“You’re in my bed.”

I smiled as I remembered our first night on the road the year before. She’d said those exact words to me. My reaction back then was completely different. Back then it was all anger. Now it was contentment.

“And? What are you going to do about it?”

Lexa must have been smiling. I could hear it in her voice even if I couldn’t see her face. She moved to the opposite side of the bed and asked, “Mind if I join you?”

I laughed and threw back the covers on the other side of the bed. “Just get in bed Lexa.”

“At least it’s Lexa this time,” She laughed. “And should I stay on my side?”

I bit my lip to trap a sigh as I watched her take off her shirt and toss it aside. As she paused for a moment to straighten her sports bra, I took my time running my eyes over her exposed torso. Even in the moonlight I could make out the ridges and plains of her muscles. Biting my lip, I giggled, “Don’t put words in my mouth!”

****

The next morning Vaughn shook me awake. I opened an eye and saw her glaring at Lexa’s arm, the one draped over my hip.

“It’s time to go. Get up,” She picked up Lexa’s hand and tossed it aside before taking hold of my wrists and trying to pull me out of bed.

Lexa’s hand flew back to my hip and pulling the fabric of my basketball shorts into her tight grasp. Fighting off Vaughn I looked over my shoulder at her. She did not look happy.

“What’s going on?” She asked. Her hand tightened even more on my hip.

“Apparently it’s time to go,” I let one of my arms swing in Vaughn’s grip to bring her attention to it.

Lexa sat up enough to look around me at Vaughn. She rubbed her face with both hands before running them through her chestnut hair. “Haven’t you ever heard of knocking?”

She must have still been half asleep. She’d never talk to Vaughn like that otherwise. I stared at her, waiting for her to realize who she was talking to, while she ran her hands through her already disheveled hair again, trying to wake herself up.

“Haven’t you ever heard of sleeping in your own bed?” She snapped back.

“Technically she did,” I replied with a smirk. Then I shrugged at her glare, “Okay, morning jokes are not helpful. Now I know that.”

Vaughn pulled on my arms once more, “let’s go Clarke. The sun is coming up. We have to go.”

“We’ll be there in a minute,” I tugged my wrist from her grasp.

“Now,” She snapped.

“I’d rather you not stand there and ogle my girlfriend when we get up. She’s got shorts and a sports bra on but no shirt. Her abs are legendary,” I explained while Lexa groaned behind me. I laughed and said, “Well, it’s true. Besides we’ve got to get Aden up.”

Vaughn looked like she didn’t know what to say. She blinked rapidly and opened her mouth a few times like she wanted to say something but each time she snapped it shut. Finally she shot a glare at Lexa and marched from the room.

“Five minutes,” She yelled just before the door slammed shut behind her.

“Legendary?” Lexa snorted. “Really?”

“She was being a jerk,” I stood and stretched.

“I’m not disagreeing,” Lexa climbed out of bed. She swung her shoulders one way then the other, stretching out her back. “I’m just saying maybe you shouldn’t seem so familiar with my torso.”

I walked around the bed, stopping just a few inches away from her. I grinned and ran my hand over those legendary muscles. “They deserve to be recognized for how glorious they are Woods.”

She winked before she pressed a kiss to my forehead. Not the reaction I was expecting or hoping for. When my annoyance became obvious she sighed, “Your sister already hates me. Let’s not add fuel to fire.”

“She doesn’t hate you,” I replied, probably a little too quickly.

“She literally just threw my own hand in my face, Clarke.”

I shrugged, “she’s my big sister. She probably thinks she’s protecting me.”

“My face needs protection,” She muttered.

I laughed and threw my arms around her shoulders. I tangled my fingers in her hair, pulling her head down for a kiss. Smiling at the goofy smile on her face when I pulled away, I said, “better?”

“So much better,” She said as her arms wrapped around my waist, her hands drifting up underneath the back of my t-shirt and pressing into the small of my back.

We heard the front door open again. Vaughn appeared in the doorway, her face darkening when she saw our arms wrapped around each other. I could barely make out her words through her growls, “I said five minutes.”

“Sorry, we got distracted,” I shrugged before stepping back and dropping my arms. I made sure to exaggerate my movements and slowly ran a hand over Lexa’s stomach as I stepped to her side. I smirked when the muscles bunched under the tender pressure, “Legendary remember?”

“Let’s go. Now,” She crossed her arms over her chest and cocked her hips. When her foot started tapping I knew she wasn’t planning on leaving me alone with Lexa again.

****

The sun was shooting red streaks through the sky by the time we made it outside since Lexa and I said a private goodbye to Aden before leaving the cabin. There had been more tears and hugs and kisses. I promised no less than seven times that we’d be back for him.

Our small family, built from the group that had walked home from the old national capitol, was outside waiting for us. I forced myself to let go of Aden’s hand so he could go and stand with the other kids. They immediately circled around him, patting his back and shoulders, trying to console him while he sniffled.

Octavia and Raven were off to the side, their foreheads pressed together as they whispered. Every few seconds, one of them would lean in and press a kiss to the other’s lips or nose. Their hands were tangled together, fingers flexing and clenching. They’d been together longer than I’d been with Lexa. This separation was hitting them hard but they knew it was necessary. They couldn’t justify taking Ava out into the world anymore than Lexa and I could justify taking Aden. So they’d decided that Octavia would remain at Oak Openings while Raven helped me search for our family. I knew they hated it. I hated it for them. But I also knew that Raven would work just as hard as I would to find the family so we could come back and retrieve our loved ones.

Harper wrapped Lexa in a fierce hug. She whispered something in her ear that had her nodding. Harper held her at arms length. She asked if Lexa understood, she nodded again. Then she turned to me and pulled me away until we were out of earshot.

I took a moment to observe my friend, smiling to myself at my thoughts. Before the Angolan Flu swept across the world and massive solar flares had knocked out all of the electricity I never really talked to Harper McIntyre about anything other than schoolwork. On our walk home, through many trials and tribulations, including her former best friend trying to kill me, we discovered out how well our seemingly opposite personalities and interests meshed. Harper was wickedly smart and deceptively funny. She took the time to explain herself. She enjoyed educating others. Basically, she was amazing. She was almost ranked even with Octavia in my best friend department.

I smiled at her as she fumbled with her jacket for something. I put my hand on her forearm to still her hand. “Harper, why have you been crying?”

She froze and glared, “Seriously? Why have I been crying? Really Clarke?”

“Harper, everything is going to be fine,” I consoled, squeezing her arm gently.

She shook her head. She reached into each pocket over and over again, determined to find something. While she searched she spoke, “It’s going to be so much worse than you’re expecting Clarke. It’s not just gong to be the flu now. It’s diseases that come with poor hygiene and lack of quality food. It’s going to be much much worse than you’re thinking.”

“I’ll be fine, Harp,” I reassured her with a smile. I grabbed her shoulder and waited for her to stop rambling before I spoke again, “We’re all going to be fine.”

She nodded, she wasn’t convinced but she knew I wouldn’t listen until she agreed with me, before resuming her search through the pockets of her jacket. Finally she pulled a huge wad of notebook paper from an inside pocket. She unfolded the papers and handed them to me.

I glanced through the papers, “What is this?”

“Everything I could think of that you might need to know. Well, most of it anyway,” Harper smiled sadly. “I’m not going to be with you this time. If something goes wrong I won’t be able to help.”

“Harper.”

She shook her head. Running her arm under her nose and sniffling, she listed off things she’d written, “Fire starting tips, edible plants, water purification, tracking. It’s all I could think of last night.”

“Thank you, Harper,” I hugged her tightly. “I know you’re worried but, like I said, I’ll be fine. Everyone will be fine. You’ll be seeing us again before you know it.”

“Just be safe. And don’t drink anything that hasn’t been purified,” Harper embraced me just as fiercely, rocking back and forth as she did so.

She walked away then, heading toward the crying children standing to the side of our gathering, glaring at Vaughn the whole time. My sister, who was consoling Aunt Callie, didn’t seem to notice Harper’s icy look. Before I could take a step in Vaughn’s direction I found myself wrapped in a bear hug and lifted off the ground.

Octavia laughed and spun me around a few times before gently returning my feet to the ground. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t slightly insulted by her happiness. The girl had been my best friend for over a decade and she seemed to be celebrating my leaving.

“Try to contain your enthusiasm,” I snapped.

“Oh knock it off, I’m devastated that you’re leaving,” She rolled her eyes when she put me back on the ground again.

“Then what’s with the hug and the twirl and the laugh?” I asked.

Octavia laughed again, “Lexa just told me about what you said to Vaughn this morning. Legendary indeed.”

“Oh,” I smiled sheepishly. “She over-stepped.”

“You’ve never stood up to her like that. Not even on the day she left for boot camp,” She reminded me, her smile growing with every passing second.

I didn’t need Vaughn to see me gloating over my actions from the morning so I could only shrug and respond calmly, “I guess I’ve changed,”

“Of course you’ve changed,” Octavia replied. She gave me a little shove on the shoulder. “Show her how much you’ve changed Clarke. Don’t let her pull the big sister card too often. But maybe let her have a go at Lexa every once in a while. It’ll do them both good.”

I felt tears filling my eyes. I’d never been away from Octavia for more than a week or two at a time. We were standing just moments away from months of being separated. The quiet tears fell as I wrapped my arms around her waist and held on tightly. “I don’t want to leave you.”

“I know Clarkey,” She said as her arms held me just as tightly. “You’ve got to find your family though, you know that. You have to find them so Raven can come back to me.”

“I will be back,” I promised. “We will be back.”

Octavia snorted out a laugh and nodded, “Oh Clarke, I never doubted that.”

She clutched me even tighter to her and I cried. Then I felt arms wrap around me from behind. I glanced back and found Harper hugging me and crying. I put my hand over one of hers and laced our fingers together. Then Lexa joined us, wrapping her arms around Octavia and Harper and resting her head on mine. Somehow, Aden managed to squeeze in between me and Lexa, wrapping his arms around my legs. To complete our little family group hug, Raven swooped in and wrapped her arms around Harper and Octavia across from Lexa.

I relished being in the middle of our little family cocoon. I knew Raven, Lexa and I were going to miss Harper and Octavia as much as they’d miss us. I also knew that Aden would be on my mind nearly every moment until I returned.

Of course, Vaughn and Rob had to ruin our moment by clearing their throats and swinging on their packs. After pressing one last kiss to Aden’s hair I took my rifle from Harper and allowed Octavia to help me secure on my pack. I spoke softly to Aunt Callie and watched Lexa bid one final farewell to her cousins and grandmother. Then we were on our way.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Come and say hi!
> 
> imaginaryhistorianme.tumblr.com


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The first obstacle is faced...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello all! I hope you enjoy the new chapter!
> 
> Any comments, questions, or kudos are more than welcome!
> 
> (BTW... my best friend is being all kind she of salty because I'm posting this before I let her read the original story. She says she hopes you all are enjoying it while she suffers.)

“We need a map,” Rob said almost as soon as the gates closed behind us. “Maybe an atlas.”

“Clarke and I know the way,” Vaughn replied over her shoulder. Five minutes into our hike and she was already several paces ahead of the rest of us.

“You know the way when you’re in a car. The walking will make it all look different,” Raven pointed out. Glancing my way, she shrugged when I shook my head. She knew as well as I did that Vaughn wouldn’t listen to either one of us. “I go to the cabin every year too but I wouldn’t swear I could get us there from memories made in a moving vehicle.”

“We’ll still recognize what we need to recognize,” Vaughn said, her tone dismissive. I watched her pick up her pace, knowing that meant she thought the conversation was at an end.

“I think we should grab an atlas anyway. It’s not like it could hurt to have one,” Lexa offered her opinion. From the grimace that followed I knew she immediately wished she hadn’t.

Vaughn rounded on us, her grey eyes tossing daggers at my girlfriend as she growled, “I just said -”

“Oh for crying out loud Vaughn! Let’s just get a map. Lexa is right and you know it. It wouldn’t hurt to have one just in case,” I growled. We couldn’t even make it thirty feet from the gates without an argument, never a good sign for a road trip.

Vaughn’s face darkened. She didn’t like me yelling at her anymore than she’d liked walking in on Lexa and me earlier. Turning back down the path she started marching again. “Fine. Let’s go to the bookstore then. They’ll have maps there.”

****

If Vaughn had her way, we’d have walked in absolute silence. She was already moving down the trail like she was on a mission behind enemy lines. She scanned the horizon constantly and every so often she’d turn in a circle to look around us. When we stopped so Raven could fix her boot, Vaughn made it clear she’d prefer me keeping my distance from Lexa. She wanted at least fifteen feet between us at all times. She claimed it was for operational security and walked away before I could argue. I may have believed her if Rob hadn’t decided to make his way from the back of our group to the front when we started moving again.

In the days of cars and trucks it took us fifteen or so minutes to get from our house to the bookstore. Without the help of automobiles the walk took us most of the day. Ophelia told me once that a healthy adult could average about fifteen miles a day while carrying supplies. She’d always been good for that kind of information. I’d always assumed she was correct and the eight or nine mile walk had us arriving at the outdoor mall in the late afternoon, proving her words in my mind once again.

The parking lots surrounding the mall were littered with useless vehicles of every make and model. There were corpses scattered through the blacktop too, like people had just surrendered to the Angolan Flu and died where they fell. I’d seen incidents like that happen more than once. Some of the bodies looked like they’d been there since the beginning of the collapse while others looked disturbingly fresh.

Picking our way through the maze of mechanical and organic decomposition we approached the doors to the bookstore carefully. The glass of the doors framed in metal made the dead bodies inside the store look like a twisted picture by some famous modern artist.

“So,” Raven said as she came to a stop beside me, “Who exactly is going to go into the creepy bookstore?”

“Clarke and I will,” Vaughn ordered as she pulled the door open. Of course she’d volunteer me. Anything to keep me away from Lexa.

Raven nodded. She pulled her pack off her back and unzipped a front compartment. After digging around for a few seconds she handed us a couple of glow sticks, “I kind of figured you’d say that.”

Standing just outside the doors, Vaughn and I checked over our weapons, making sure they were ready in case we needed them. As we stepped through the doors we cracked the glow sticks and gave them a few shakes. They only lit up a small space around us, maybe a few feet in any direction, throwing an eerie green tint over everything I could see. The blessing of the miniscule light source was we could see where people and objects had fallen so we could avoid them. The curse of the glow was that I could see empty eyes staring up at me. The green tint the sticks gave off didn’t make the corpses any less creepy.

Ignoring the lifeless eyes and the nearly overwhelming stench of dead flesh, I made my way toward the back of the store toward the notebooks, sketchbooks, and maps. Before the end, that had always been my favorite area of the store. The blank notebooks seemed like invitations for adventures. The empty pages practically to be filled with inked memories and silly sketches.

It was different now. There was a body of a young girl blocking the aisle entrance. She must have died recently. Her skin wasn’t mottled with splotches of blue and black; her body hadn’t started to bloat yet. She didn’t look any older than eleven or twelve, only a few years older than Aden. I froze, unable to step over her.

Vaughn glanced over my shoulder. She saw the girl’s face illuminated by my glow stick. She placed her hand on my shoulder as she said, “There’s nothing you can do for her, Clarke.”

I nodded. I knew that. The girl was gone. In the world before the end, the loss of her life would have made headlines. A young strawberry-blonde-haired white girl would have been seen as a terrible loss. In the Now though it barely warranted a second glance. And yet, for whatever reason, I couldn’t move my eyes from her face.

Steeling myself with a deep breath I lifted my foot to step over the small body. That breath came rushing out as a scream when the dead girl’s fingers closed around my ankle. My rifle was pointed at her head before my screech ended.

The girl swallowed hard. Her fingers tightened on my ankle. She made a whimpering sort of noise and grimaced, like the sound had hurt her throat.

I bent down a little, trying to get a clearer look at her. Vaughn grabbed my shoulder and shook her head.

Yanking my shoulder out of her grasp I leaned down again and insisted, “I think she’s trying to say something.”

“There isn’t anything we can do for her Clarke. Shake her off and let’s go,” Vaughn ordered, trying to yank me upright.

“Shake her off?” I couldn’t help but repeat my sister’s words. I wasn’t entirely sure I’d heard her correctly.

Narrowing her eyes, Vaughn pulled herself up to her full height, which was several inches taller than my own. She had never liked me not automatically following her lead. This instance felt oddly similar to every time I refused to agree with her. Not that we hadn’t been close before she left, I’d worshipped my big sister as a child, but her joining up had driven wedge that had remained for the last couple of years. Now she thought I’d just accept her decision to refuse help to a child in need.

Clenching her jaw, Vaughn nodded, “She’s practically dead anyway. We can’t save her. We don’t have time to nurse her back to health. We’re here to get maps, not acquire another mouth to feed. Either put her out of her misery or shake her off. Those are your options.”

“I’ve made this choice forced on me once before. I’ve regretted what happened every day since,” I shook my head, lowering my eyes back to the girl. “I see that girl’s face in my dreams all the time, Vaughn.”

“It isn’t the same thing, Clarke,”

“You don’t know that,” I snapped, my voice much less harsh than I’d wanted.

Narrowing her eyes at my tone, Vaughn used her big sister voice when she spoke, “Clarke. We have to go. Now.”

“She’s only a few years older than Jacob. Would you shake one of him off too?” I glared at Vaughn. I couldn’t see much, even in the light provided by both of our glow sticks, but I hoped she could see how disgusted I was by her in that moment.

“Clarke!” She gasped.

Ignoring Vaughn, I leaned down again and asked the girl to repeat what she’d whispered.

“Water,” Came her small, painfully hoarse reply. “Please.”

I nodded. Standing up again I swung my pack around and reached inside for one of my bottles of water. Just as my hand closed around the plastic I heard Vaughn sigh. Glancing up I realized more of the corpses had moved.

“I told you not to help. But no, you had to play hero,” Vaughn had her gun pointed toward one of the moving bodies.

“I thought she needed help,” I said as felt the hand tighten on my ankle again. I looked down at the girl. She moved her head slowly, nodding twice.

Vaughn pulled me away from the girl, “Just grab the map and the atlas so we can go.”

“Well now,” drawled a woman’s voice from the pitch-black shadows to our right. “I don’t think you’ll be leaving that easily.”

“Says who?” Vaughn challenged.

A figure stepped forward into the limited light. She was tall, at least a half dozen inches taller than Vaughn so she was a minimum of halfway between six and seven foot, and she was built like a linebacker. She rolled her shoulders a couple of times then jerked her head from one side to the other. I cringed at the snapping and popping of her joints.

“Says me I suppose. And so does my little friend here,” She waved a small revolver around.

“Really?” Vaughn looked unimpressed. “What’s that going to do against our rifles?”

The giantess leaned forward enough for her sneer to glow green. “It only takes one bullet to take you out, little one.”

“You’ll have three round in you before you can blink,” Vaughn growled back.

I froze. I was instantly transported back in time to when I made a similar threat during a raid on my camp. I’d killed a man that night. My first kill. It wasn’t my last kill, not by a long shot but it was one of the ones that haunted my dreams. I didn’t want a repeat of the results of that night. I shuddered, knowing my dreams that night would be filled with images of the girl in the bed and Heath, the man from the raid on our camp. It’d probably feature guest stars Costia Oakley and Luke Forrester too.

“What do you want?” I asked loudly, over the giantess’s next threat.

“Everything,” She replied. The grin on her face reminded me of the Grinch as he burglarized his way through Whoville.

“Yeah. That definitely isn’t going to work for us,” Vaughn responded. I heard her gun rattle as she tightened her grip.

The giantess laughed loudly and spoke as if she was playing to an audience, “Sure it will. You’ll be alive. Isn’t that all we really want?”

Before I could respond someone grabbed my pack and pulled hard. It would have come off if the straps hadn’t been securely fastened across my chest and waist. I whirled around, throwing out my elbow out as I went. I caught the person in the side of the head and raised my gun at them. It took a second or two for the little girl’s face to register. She had a hand pressed to her temple where my boney joint knocked into her.

“Hey now!” The giantess yelled. “You watch it!”

Several more people stood and pointed their weapons at us. Guess the audience decided to make it an interactive show. A few of them moved toward me. Their stances made it clear they meant to repay the assault on the girl.

“They don’t touch her!” Vaughn roared back at the woman when one of them tried to grab me.

“You give up those packs right now and maybe we’ll let you live,” the woman replied easily, like her request was beyond reasonable.

I glared at the girl while Vaughn and the giantess yelled back and forth. I scolded myself, knowing if the girl hadn’t been so young I never would have paused over her. If she hadn’t reminded me of that girl I left behind last year, or made me think of my younger brother, I wouldn’t have even paused. The whole situation could have been avoided.

The girl glanced around at the people circling my sister and me before mouthing something to me. I shook my head. I had no clue what she was saying. She tried again and again, each time checking to make sure no one was looking at her. Honestly though, it was pointless. When other girls had been learning the whole silent communication thing, roughly at the same time they were learning about makeup, I was in the weight room or on the field. I was about as good at reading lips as I was at putting on eyeliner.

The giantess’s roaring voice broke into our little non-communication party. “Drop your packs! I don’t have time for this!”

“No,” Somehow Vaughn made that one syllable sound more threatening than an entire Bond villain rant.

“Look, you drop your packs right now and I’ll let you keep your fancy guns. Otherwise, we’ll have to kill you and take everything. That’s what happened to them over there,” She waved her hand to the left.

Following the motion, I saw a group of decaying bodies in a pile near the old checkout area. I shuddered and turned back to the girl. She nodded vigorously, like she thought it was a fantastic deal. Or maybe she was letting me know the woman was telling the truth.

“Okay,” I said.

“Clarke,” Vaughn snapped and shook her head. She wouldn’t let anyone approach her. She made it clear to everyone that she had no intention of giving up her pack.

Trying to resolve the situation without violence, I unsnapped my pack and handed it to the girl. I managed to grab a couple of extra magazines for my rifle when she swung it onto her back, staggering under the weight. I reached down to adjust the straps. She leaned into me, looking like a kindergartner wearing a university student’s backpack and in a voice that could barely be called whisper she said, “help me please!”

Before I could respond the giantess pulled her away. I leveled my gun at the woman as she backed up toward the exit.

“You two stay here until sundown,” She spat.

“Or what?” Vaughn snapped back.

“Or you’ll find out what kind of a shot our sharpshooter is.”

I grabbed Vaughn’s arm to keep her from following the group out of the store. She tried to yank her arm free but I wouldn’t let go, sharpshooters are given the name for a reason and I couldn’t risk losing Vaughn so soon after I found her.

When the group was finally out of earshot she turned to me. “Why would you voluntarily hand over our supplies? That was beyond dumb Clarke! You think you were helping us? They weren’t going to do anything. I could see it in their eyes.”

“Vaughn, it’s okay,” I said calmly.

“How is any of this okay?” She questioned bitterly. She marched to the map display and searched through what remained, pulling several from the shelves. “Now we have to go back to your stupid compound and start again tomorrow now. We’re losing two whole days.”

“Aren’t you forgetting something though?”

“No!”

As the doors started to close behind the thieving group a shot rang out, echoing through the empty store.

Vaughn’s eyes widened. “The others!”

I nodded and smirked. “Those people thought we were alone. They walked right into the guys.”

“Don’t be smug. We don’t know who fired that shot.”

“It was Raven,” A couple more shots rang out. The booming of a shotgun that followed wasn’t hard to identify. I took off toward the doors as I yelled over my shoulder, “and that was Lexa!”

Vaughn was on my heels. She caught up to me and pulled me to a stop before I could reach the exit. She held a finger over her lips and motioned for me to crouch low and follow her. She handed me the maps before she moved to the glass doors. I tried to follow her example but she made shuffling around while keeping her gun fire-ready look incredibly easy. I must have looked like a toddler mimicking her mother.

When I could finally see through the glass I laughed. The others had the entire group on their knees.

I stood up and moved around Vaughn. I walked outside and picked up my pack from the ground in front of the girl before standing beside Lexa.

Vaughn approached the giantess, “So much for your sharpshooter.”

“Yeah yeah. I get it. You win,” the woman sighed. She didn’t seem to like knowing she held none of the cards this time around. “Can we go now?”

“Yes,” I spoke quickly. I just wanted the situation over with as soon as possible.

“No,” Vaughn snapped.

The giantess looked from one of us to the other before turning to Raven, “Which one are we listening to?”

Raven subtly pointed at me but Vaughn ignored the woman’s question. She kept her rifle trained on the woman as she spoke, “I have some questions before you go anywhere. If you answer them, we’ll let you leave.”

“Make it fast. We have to head home. It’s going to be dark soon,” the woman muttered.

“That’s the first question. Where is home?” Vaughn started her interrogation

“The old RV sales lot a few miles from here,” the woman replied.

“Where was home?” Vaughn asked.

“You mean before?” the woman replied. Vaughn nodded so the woman shrugged, “that’s a different answer for each of us. For me it was Kalamazoo.”

“Why are you here?” Vaughn asked.

“It’s where our leader said to go. And yes, he told us what to do when we got here.”

Vaughn considered that for a moment. “Who is your leader?”

“Charles Pike.”

“The senator?” Vaughn sounded shocked. I’d never heard of the man.

“Yes. Can we go now?” The woman was back to growling.

“One last question,” My sister leaned over so she was in the woman’s face. “Who do you think you are? You think you can just go around and steal from others? How is that okay?”

“We have people to provide for. Children and elderly,” the giantess replied. There was no shame on her face. She wasn’t worried about how the actions of her group would affect others.

“So do we. So maybe we ought to take your supplies so we can provide for our people,” Vaughn responded, taking in the guns and small bags the others had placed in front of them as they knelt.

The fear on the faces lined up before us was clear. Somehow I knew if they went back without fresh supplies and without their weapons Charles Pike would not simply brush it off. It would be bad enough if they returned without something new but to return without what they’d left with… That was not an option.

“That’s what I thought,” Vaughn said with a nod. “Get out of here. And don’t come back here. You can tell Pike this has been territory claimed.”

I stood between Lexa and Raven as the group filed passed. The young girl was the last in the line. Without thinking, I reached out and put my hand on her shoulder, pulling her to a stop so I could give her a bottle of water and one of my homemade granola bars. It wasn’t much but I hoped it would help her. She smiled sadly before putting her head down and following her group across the parking lot.

“Let’s move out,” Vaughn barked as soon as they disappeared into the brush.

Raven held up a finger, “Hang on a sec!”

She took my glow stick and ran into the store before Vaughn could tell her not to move.

“What is she doing?” Rob asked as soon as the door closed behind our cousin.

“No idea. It’s Raven,” Lexa shrugged. When Rob only stared, Lexa explained, “She does what she wants.”

Raven reappeared a few minutes later, panting and looking excited. She grinned and said, “Okay. Now we can go.”

“What did you get?” I couldn’t help but ask.

“Graphic novels. And a few other things,” She smiled and adjusted her pack on her shoulders. If she grabbed as many books as I suspected she had, her pack was at least five pounds heavier. “I even grabbed an atlas since I didn’t see one when you guys came out.”

“Only you Raven,” I laughed.

She shrugged and reminded me, “thousands of miles Clarke. I need entertainment. You’re a horrible singer and Vaughn tells bad jokes. What else was I supposed to do?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Come and see me! Drop me a line!
> 
> imaginaryhistorianme.tumblr.com


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Clexa has a sweet moment. Vaughn reveals a part of the reason she hasn't warmed up to Lexa yet.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the wait. Adulting is dumb.
> 
> Comments and kudos more than welcome!

We made camp in a little thicket not far from the bookstore. There was a small clearing atop a hill, providing all the cover Vaughn could desire. A surprisingly pleasant evening around the fire passed quickly before Vaughn ordered us all off to bed. She glared at Lexa while we said a quick good night. She leaned down to give me a kiss but Vaughn’s throat clearing changed her mind. Instead I got a barely there peck on my forehead.

After shooting a glare at my sister I crawled into my tent, the one I’d used on the walk from Washington D.C. to Whitehouse, and wrestled my way into my sleeping bag. Even though I grumbled just loud enough for the others to hear, I was asleep not long after zipping it closed.

Vaughn woke us early the next day. I was sure she hadn’t slept. No one had woken me up to take a turn on guard duty so I figured she and Rob must have taken turns.

Even with an overtired Raven and my not so passive-aggressive pouting, which consisted of me walking just a little slower every time Vaughn cleared her throat or snapped at Lexa, we made good time that morning. The sun was directly overhead when we made it to the Maumee River.

Lexa and I were halfway across the bridge when Rob yelled for us to stop. We turned back to see him pointing back the way we came. I followed his finger and spotted a huge plume of smoke.

Rob pulled off his pack, leaning it up against the front tire of an abandoned semi truck that was siting on the bridge. He primed his rifle and glanced over at us, “Lexa, you know the area. Will you come with me?”

I shook my head. There was no way I was okay with Lexa being alone with either Rob or my sister. I threaded my finger through the back belt loop on Lexa’s jeans and shook my head, “I don’t think so.”

“I’ll go,” Raven volunteered at the same time as she dropped her pack next to Rob’s.

“I’d rather Lexa went,” Vaughn argued.

Lexa snorted and jerked her thumb at the muscle-bound man, “So he can hit me over the head with that fancy rifle and leave me in the woods? No thanks.”

“How dare you!” Vaughn growled.

“As if it’s a stretch to imagine him doing something like that,” I scoffed. Waving a hand at my cousin I added, “Raven will go with Rob. Lexa is staying with me.”

That seemed to settle the argument. I wasn’t sure why Vaughn had stop arguing but I wasn’t going to push my luck by asking her. Instead I stood on the narrow sidewalk of the bridge with Lexa and Raven while Vaughn gave Rob his orders.

“Is it just me or should we maybe not leave Lexa with either one of them?” Raven whispered, only half joking.

“It’s not just you,” Lexa replied, eyeing the other couple from the corner of her eye. “Vaughn hates me. And I think we all know Rob will do whatever she tells him to do.”

They glanced at me like they were worried their comments would upset me.

“I don’t disagree with either of you,” I giggled when Lexa clutched a hand over her heart and pretended to be shocked. “Don’t get used to me siding with you over my sister. It’ll only last until she gets to know you and figures out how impossible it is to hate you.”

I leaned into her, fully intending on giving her a proper kiss, when Vaughn interrupted us by clearing her throat. I barely got a peck in before Lexa moved away. I bit back a groan of frustration. I’d honestly forgotten how much having an older sister around could interfere with my love life. For the briefest of moments I wished Bennet had been the one to find me. She’d always been more relaxed in her role as big sister, only pulling out the ‘protective older sister’ card when it was absolutely necessary.

Lexa gave Raven a brief hug before offering Rob a weird two-finger salute. She started to reach for my hand while I was talking to Raven but then shoved her hands in her pockets instead. I glanced over at Vaughn. She was glaring at us again. I rolled my eyes and yanked Lexa’s hand free, pulling her against my side and draping her arm across my shoulder. She tried to move away once. I shook my head. Wrapping my arm around her waist I grabbed one of her belt loops.

“Subtle,” Raven laughed.

“I’ll start being subtle when she stops with the over-protective crap.”

Lexa laughed nervously, “She can kill me with her bare hands Clarke. Can we maybe try to not make her angry?”

“Don’t be ridiculous, Woods,” I replied.

“Yeah. She could probably kill you with her pinky,” Raven said with an unconcerned shrug, “And probably her mind too. I think she’s a Jedi.”

I held up my pinky to my cousin. “Just hurry up and go so you can get back.”

Raven wrapped her little finger around mine and squeezed once. It was something I’d started doing on our last long walk. It became a tradition with our little family. Every time one of us left the compound another of us was there at the gates to secure the promise of their quick and safe return. Even if we were only leaving for a day trip, we make the promise.

Rob and Raven took off at a jog toward the smoke, leaving me alone with my girlfriend and my sister who couldn’t seem to get along. My only solution was to stay off to one side of the bridge with Lexa while Vaughn paced the length of the bridge over and over again. Every time we’d show more affection than talking quietly she’d clear her throat or make a show out of inspecting her military issued rifle.

After a while Lexa grew restless under Vaughn’s scrutiny. She wasn’t used to having her every move watched. She was an easy-going and caring girl. Almost everybody liked her. Even when I couldn’t stand her, I knew Lexa was one of the good ones. She just had a way about her that drew people to her. She didn’t know how to handle Vaughn constantly reminding her how much she didn’t like her. Vaughn hadn’t even tried to give her a chance to show her how amazing she was. I’m sure my frustration at the situation didn’t help.

I pulled her a little further up the bridge, away from Vaughn’s scrutiny, but even when we ducked behind a minivan we were under the ever present and perpetually unwanted eye of my sister. Lexa turned her head slightly, searching for Vaughn. I couldn’t blame her; she always seemed to be right there every time we were within a few feet of each other.

“Hey,” I said quietly, cupping her cheek with my hand and applying a little pressure until she was looking at me again. Once my eyes met her beautiful green orbs I smiled. “Hi.”

“Hello,” she grinned down at me.

“How’s it going?” I winked. Something about the tinted windows of that van between my sister and me gave me a little sense of privacy. Was there a better way to take advantage of that than to flirt a bit? “Do you come here often?”

“You’re so funny, Griffin,” Lexa rolled her eyes but her hands found my hips and pulled me a fraction of an inch closer as she leaned back against the van.

“Must be all the time I spend around Raven. She’s the funny one,” I replied. Running my hands up her arms slowly, I stopped them when they reached her shoulders.

Scoffing at that, Lexa pulled me a bit closer, “I’m the funny one. You spend all your time with me, Clarke.”

“Maybe Aden is the funny one?”

“He’s humorous but you laugh the hardest at my jokes,” Lexa acknowledged.

Shaking my head and giggling, I couldn’t believe how much I’d missed that simple form of teasing in just the last couple of days. I pretended to consider her words before replying, “you mean I laugh the hardest at you?”

“That’s not nice Griffin.”

“I never once claimed to be nice Woods,” I reminded her.

I shifted closer to her, close enough that her hands could slide around to the small of my back where her fingers laced together. I lifted a hand to tickle the back of her neck, knowing it’d make her head drop forward until our foreheads met. Once her skin met mine I sighed. Simple contact is so underrated. Sometimes all I needed was her nose to bop against mine to be content. After days of Vaughn running constant interference, Lexa’s forehead pressed gently to mine was exactly what I needed.

“I miss this,” I whispered.

“Me too,” she replied.

Taking that last step, I pressed myself against her and buried my face in her neck. I thought for a second she was going to stiffen or move her hands back to my hips and push me back a little. Instead she held me tighter. Honestly, I’d never loved minivans as much as I did in that moment.

Shifting enough so she could hear me I spoke quietly, “Hey Lexa?”

“Yeah?” My hair muffled her response since her lips were pressed to my blonde locks.

“What did Harper say to you? Before we left yesterday?”

That caused her to stiffen. I thought about taking the questions back, telling her to forget I asked but something stopped me. Probably my overwhelming curiosity. Harper usually had the best advice among our little family.

“She just wanted to offer some wise words,” she said after leaning her head back against the van.

“You don’t want to tell me?” I lifted my head to study her.

“No, it’s fine. I just don’t want to upset you,” she closed her eyes and sighed. Without opening them again, she spoke again, “she wanted to remind me how awesome I am. For more than my abs.”

I laughed at that. Loudly. “Please tell me she actually mentioned your abs!”

“She did. She said she knew how much you love my abs and that she agreed they were above average in the awesomeness category but that wasn’t the reason you’re with me.”

“I knew there was a reason I love Harper,” I grinned.

“She told me to give Vaughn time to get to know me. That she has her own reasons for her opinions but that I’m too amazing for anyone to really hate,” Lexa met my eyes again as she finished speaking.

“That girl is the best. Also, she may be in love with you,” I giggled. When Lexa just chuckled softly and closed her eyes again, I reached up to hold her face in my hands. “She happens to be right.”

“She’s not in love with me,” Lexa replied.

“I know. But she should be. Everyone should be. You’re the best,” I explained. “I love you.”

“I love you too, Griffin.”

I pressed as close as I could, smiling when Lexa’s lips met mine halfway between us. I pressed a quick kiss to her lips, nipping at her bottom lip before pulling back. She looked contentedly bemused.

“She’s right though. Just give Vaughn time to see how great you are. She’ll get there.”

Lexa leaned down, whispering in my ear that she’d like a chance to prove Vaughn wrong about her when my sister cleared her throat. Our heads whipped to the left, finding her hard eyes focused solely on Lexa. I wished I had a cough drop I could offer her. Lexa’s hands were on my hips and pushing me back gently before I could react. Once there was enough space between us she stepped away from me.

Not knowing what else to do, I turned and reached up to pull her head down for another kiss, this one a little innocent than the last. I ignored Vaughn’s rattling gun and her throat clearing. I wasn’t proud of myself. Lexa’s stiff posture told me she wasn’t impressed with my decision either but I didn’t know what else to do. I was trying to prove a point. Lexa and I had been together for almost a year. A year’s worth of habits didn’t stop just because my sister suddenly appeared.

I sank my hands into Lexa’s chestnut hair, as much as the small braids spaced across her head would allow, loving the familiar way the loose waves coiled themselves around my fingers. It was like even her hair knew we were two halves of a whole and was trying to hold me close. When I finally let her go Lexa looked dazed. It was one of my favorite looks on her. Satisfied that I’d proven my point to Lexa, I took her hand and pulled her over to where Vaughn was standing.

I ignored my sister’s glare, although I was glad it was directed at me and not Lexa this time, as I growled, “Get over yourself, Vaughn. We haven’t done anything wrong. Nothing at all.”

“You’re a kid. You shouldn’t be plastering your face to hers like that.”

“Please try to understand,” Lexa spoke up. I knew she was going to try to defend us but I pressed my free hand to her chest to stop her. If my sister wanted to be mad at someone over my relationship she could be mad at me. She’d only turn Lexa’s words against her.

I made sure Lexa’s hand stayed firmly in mine when I spoke. I knew I was right about her anger focusing on my girlfriend. Even though I was the one talking, she wouldn’t look away from her. “We’ve been living as adults for a year Vaughn. Our age isn’t the same… it doesn’t mean the same thing it did before. We’ve been working. We’ve helped build a new community. We’ve helped to protect that new home, sometimes with lethal force. I may only be seventeen and a few days in your eyes but in The Now I just turned on forty.”

Vaughn narrowed her eyes at my proclamation, “Well I’m here now so you can go back to being a kid.”

“That’s not going to happen,” I shook my head.

“I don’t need to see you kissing every time I turn around,” she snapped, grey eyes finally concentrating on me.

“That’s what we do. We kiss and hold hands and run our hands through each other’s hair. I like being able to reach out and assure myself Lexa’s here, that she’s safe,” I explained the best I could. “And honestly Vaughn, none of it is your business.”

The snarl that left my sister’s mouth was almost feral. Her eyes narrowed to slits as she spoke, “It is if I can see it.”

“If you stop glaring at Lexa all the time you won’t see it,” I said sharply. She was being obtuse and I couldn’t understand why.

My sister and I argued on that bridge for a long time. She wanted me to be more reserved and honor myself. I wanted her to understand that I could honor myself and still kiss my girlfriend. Lexa and I hadn’t done anything wrong.

Throughout the argument Lexa silently held my hand. She’d nod or squeeze my hand when I made a good point and wince when one of Vaughn’s many barbs found its mark. Finally she leaned into me and pressed a kiss to the side of my head, just above my ear.

Before she moved away she whispered, “I’m going to go and see what I can see. I’ll be back by dusk.”

“Stay close,” I replied.

“I’ll hurry up and go so I can get back,” she lifted my hand and wrapped her pinky around mine before kissing my knuckles. I watched her walk into the woods at the end of the bridge.

I knew she was giving me the space I needed to squabble with Vaughn. She knew my sister was holding back her feelings about her at least a little. I hoped I could convince her to give Lexa a chance before she came back. I only wanted all of us to be happy. I didn’t think that was too much to ask for in The Now.

Of course Vaughn and I continued to argue. When the sun broke through the clouds we pulled our packs under the trailer of the semi and argued in the shade. It didn’t matter what I said I couldn’t gain any ground.

It was impossible to know how long we argued. Time became irrelevant when all the clocks and watches and phones weren’t around to yell at us. Eventually Vaughn just stopped responding to my questions and comments. She grew really quiet, almost solemn.

After a few minutes she said, “it’s just that I know how her family can be.”

“Her family?” I repeated. I’d spent a lot of time with her remaining family members. They’d all seemed nice and polite. I couldn’t see what any of them could have done to Vaughn to make her hold such a grudge. “You mean Thad?”

“I mean Ilian. But I remember Thad too.”

Lexa’s brothers were the three people she refused to talk about. Ilian, Lincoln, and Gustus were all off-limits, even to me unless Lexa felt like talking about them. Vaughn wasn’t making any sense. “What does your knowing Ilian and Lincoln and Thad have to do with Lexa? What on Earth could you knowing little Gustus have to do with any of this?”

She studied me out of the corner of her eye. She picked up a few pebbles from the side of the road and tossed them around. Finally she sighed, “They’re a nice family Clarke. They’ve always been a nice family. But every single one of those Woods are hound dogs.”

“Excuse me?”

“Not Lincoln so much. He was always so quiet, not in a creepy way but in a sort of ‘I like to study people’ way. But Ilian… Ilian tried to sleep with all of my friends. All of them. Like he made it his mission. Me included. He didn’t even try to hide it. When he’d worked his way through my friends he moved on to another group.” Vaughn explained quietly. She tossed a few more pebbles. She shifted her back one way, then the other. Then she said, “I don’t know the other one. Gustus.”

“You’re worried Lexa is doing the same thing?”

“Is she?”

I laughed, “Harper is my only friend besides Octavia. I’m pretty sure Lexa isn’t at all interested in Octavia and Harper would tell me if she was even a little inappropriate.”

“She’s a Woods. They’re only about one thing.”

“She’s all about survival now Vaughn. And a big part of that for her is protecting me and Aden.”

Vaughn shook her head, “That isn’t what I meant and you know it!”

I sighed. I knew where the conversation was heading and I didn’t like it. “I’m guessing you’d like to know which of her brothers Lexa is really like?”

“Maybe?”

“She hasn’t pressured me Vaughn,” I replied. “Not once.”

“So you haven’t…” She couldn’t force herself to finish her question. She blushed and shook her head, dropping her eyes to the ground.

“Haven’t what? Had sex with my insanely sexy girlfriend?” I finished it for her.

Avoiding the topic would only make her more curious and her curiosity would bring more scrutiny down on Lexa and me. I couldn’t blame her for her reluctance to ask the question. She was five years older than me so we’d never really discussed our relationships in the past. I probably would have had the same look on my face if I had the sex discussion with Jacob in a few years.

“Yes. That,” she nodded.

“No Vaughn. We haven’t.”

She nodded and picked up more pebbles. “Good. That’s good.”

“You could have just asked me this back at the compound Vaughn. It would have saved us a lot of grief,” I couldn’t stop the eye roll that followed. If the only reason she was being so over the top with Lexa was because she thought she’d pushed me to have sex then she’d wasted a lot of energy for no reason. Then I straightened my back a little and glared at her, “You do know the idea of virginal purity exists because of a patriarchal social system forced on women for millennia right? It literally exists because men place so much importance on their penises they decided a woman was changed as soon as she touched one. Like their dicks were so amazing they couldn’t stand the idea that a woman wouldn’t be forever different after having sex.”

“Did Woods tell you that?” Vaughn bit out.

“No,” I shook my head and sighed. “Mom did.”

That caused her to hesitate for a moment, then she sighed, “If I’d just come right out and asked you if you’d slept with her, would you have answered me honestly?”

“Yes. I don’t want to have to hide any part of my relationship from my family,” I assured her. “Although I don’t really want to talk about sex with you.”

“Good answer,” she said quietly. “But you said you’ve been together for almost a year. That’s a long time, Clarkey.”

“Just because we haven’t had sex doesn’t mean we haven’t – ”

Shaking her head, Vaughn quietly protested, “I don’t want to know!”

“Maybe you could try to be a little nicer to Lexa now that you know she hasn’t corrupted me,” I leaned over so I could put my head on her shoulder. “Honestly though Vaughn, I’m not sure how much pressure it’d take. You’ve seen her abs haven’t you? And you do know she can’t get me pregnant right?”

“This isn’t a joke, Clarke,” she sighed and wrapped her hand around mine.

“But it is kind of funny,” I giggled. “And totally true.”

I was about to tease her for being a prude but her hand clamped over my mouth. When I tried to talk around her fingers she shushed me and pressed her hand harder against my face. Once I stopped struggling against her it was easy to figure out what was happening.

There was a group approaching the bridge. Several people in boots that were either didn’t fit right or hadn’t been tied were clomping their way toward us.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Come and see me! Leave a comment or a prompt!
> 
> imaginaryhistorianme.tumblr.com


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Vaughn and Clarke face a confrontation.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW for this chapter. There is some very suggestive language and an attempt at non-con. I don't think it's too graphic but if that could be a trigger for you, let me know and I can summarize the chapter for you. Just drop me a line here or on tumblr.
> 
> As always, comments and kudos are welcomed! Please let me know what you think!

Vaughn and I slid our gear further behind us as we tried to get out of sight. There wasn’t anything we could do about the others’ packs leaning up against the truck. I leaned back against a tire, trying to make myself as small as possible. Vaughn pulled her gun off her back and onto her lap.

“Don’t move,” she whispered. “Don’t even breathe.”

I could only nod. The small group was on the bridge. From the sounds of their stomping there had to be six or so people. We were definitely outnumbered and possibly outgunned.

Vaughn moved deliberately, trying to get into a position where she could observe the new arrivals without exposing her to their line of sight. It wasn’t an easy feat for her, she was only a fraction of an inch under six feet, but she managed to contort her body around a tire and then freeze, holding a position that would have my well trained muscles shaking in agony within minutes. I watched her eyes staring off in the distance, darting first one way then another.

“I can’t see anything,” she growled.

“Can you reach the other packs?” The overflowing bags would be too tempting for a stranger to pass up.

“No,” Vaughn seemed to be studying the layout of the useless cars that dotted the bridge. “They’d see me before I could even stand up straight.”

“What do we do?”

She shook her head, “We hide and hope they don’t see us.”

“But the packs!”

“It’s our own fault. We shouldn’t have left them out in the open,” Vaughn scolded herself under her breath before glancing at me. She smiled weakly and added, “At least Lexa took her pack with her.”

I followed her example when she slid further back, until we were almost underneath the bumper of the semi. I hated having to hide. I hated having to time my breathing with the scraping of the boots approaching us. And I really hated not knowing if the people approaching us were actually dangerous or if we were just being paranoid.

I reached for Vaughn’s hand when the footsteps sounded like they were right next to us. I held tightly and closed my eyes. I could hear the others talking, all of them men, by my count there were five of them talking and bickering. First I heard a gruff voice, it belonged to the man who seemed to be giving the orders. Then there was a scratchy voice. He seemed to be arguing with Gruffy McGrufferson. The third was a higher voice, I instantly pictured a weasel. He was making comments under his breath. I couldn’t tell if he was trying to be funny or if he was really mad about something. A man with a pretty noticeable lisp was responding to everything Weasel said. The last voice sounded surprisingly young. The man to whom that voice belonged to couldn’t have been any older than Vaughn.

We waited for Gruffy, Scratchy, Weasel, Lispy, and Junior to pass by, hoping they’d be so wrapped up in whatever they were bickering about they’d be completely oblivious to the packs. By some miracle they didn’t approach the truck, instead they walked along the small sidewalk on the other side of the bridge.

I strained my ears, listening to their conversation and their footsteps.

Weasel and Lispy were complaining about being left out of some big mission. Gruffy told them over and over again to stop whining, hunting was more important because it would provide food for everyone. Weasel snapped back something about the mission providing shelter.

“Only boys think being involved in a fight make them men,” Scratchy said.

“Why don’t you keep out of it?” Weasel snapped back.

“Yeah! You sound like a fortune cookie,” Lispy added.

“Leave him alone,” Junior sounded bored, like he’d been telling Weasel and Lispy to back off Scratchy all day.

Weasel snickered, “Someone thinks he’s tough now.”

“You think you’re tough?” Lispy said. I had a feeling Lispy and Weasel were brothers or something. They seemed like the kind of guys that spent too much time together so they thought everything one of them said was funny.

“I think you ought to keep walking,” Junior still sounded bored.

Suddenly there was scuffling and grunting. Apparently Junior wasn’t afraid to put his fist where his mouth was. The scuffling stopped but then the sounds of a fight broke through. Gruffy tried to calm his men down but it was no use, Weasel and Lispy smelled blood and now they wanted to see it.

I couldn’t tell who was throwing what punch. The fight was over as quickly as it started.

“I guess that settles that then,” Junior panted. There was a pride in his voice that hadn’t been there before so he must have won the scuffle.

I leaned down, my face almost touching the pavement, so I could see what was happening. A man, I guessed he was either Weasel or Lispy, was on the ground. I could just barely make out the barrel of a gun hovering over his face.

Sitting up again I gave Vaughn a thumbs up. The men were a little passed the truck. They’d walked right by us and they’d been so distracted by their own infighting that they’d never seen the packs.

There was a tooth-rattling thump followed by a thud. I could hear moaning as I crouched down again. Another man was on the ground next to the other. He wasn’t really moving so I assumed he’d been knocked out.

“That’s enough,” Gruffy said. “Pick them up. We don’t have all day.”

A man I guessed was Scratchy leaned down and slapped the man who’d been knocked out. From my awkward position I saw him glance at the other man on the ground. He nodded at something then helped him to his feet.

“Why do I have to pick up this worthless waste of space? I didn’t knock anyone out,” Scratchy asked.

“Just get him up Brad,” Gruffy ordered again. “Charlie and I are going up ahead. Maybe we’ll have a trail to follow by the time he wakes up.”

“I’m sure I can find a trail. You’d probably need a magnifying glass,” Junior laughed.

“Shut up, Charlie,” Gruffy huffed.

Brad complained the entire time the men walked away from him. Finally, when he must have been sure they couldn’t hear him anymore, he turned to his only conscious companion.

“That kid has a fist like a baseball bat!” Lispy whined.

“No reason for fighting. It’s stupid,” Brad replied. “And that ‘kid’ is maybe four years younger than you.”

Lispy tried to say something else but a smack to the back of his head stopped the words in his throat. Brad turned to the unconscious man on the pavement. He tried nudging the man with his booted foot, then leaned over and slapped him a few times. After a few minutes Brad pulled a bottle of water out of his pack.

“Don’t waste it,” Lispy warned.

“Norman and Charlie are already out of sight. We’ll never find them if they get too deep in the trees,” Brad replied.

“Maybe we should just go home then,” Lispy said. “If they want to go ahead, let them hunt alone. It’s not like Charlie will let us do anything anyway.”

Brad ignored his friend. He poured the water over Weasel’s head, leaving the bottle about half empty when he righted it again. When Weasel started coughing and slowly moved his head Brad laughed and poured more water. Weasel pulled himself onto an elbow and coughed again.

“Hey! You’re going to drown him!” Lispy smacked the bottle out of his hand. “Joey! Are you okay?”

After another round of coughing Weasel was on his back again. “Yeah Josh, I’m fine.”

“Norman went ahead with Charlie. Something about trying to find a trail. We’re supposed to catch up with them,” Brad interrupted. I could still hear the laughter in his voice.

“Give me a second,” Weasel, or rather Joey, protested. “That kid’s fist must be made of iron.”

“He used to do that MMA fighting,” Josh said absentmindedly.

“Why didn’t you tell me that before I started fighting with him?” Joey yelled.

“He asked me not to say anything. I caught him training one day and he promised to teach me some moves if I kept quiet.”

“You’re an idiot,” Brad scoffed. “You’re both idiots.”

Joey groaned when Brad nudged him again. He slapped the boot away and turned his head away from his friends.

I watched in horror as his eyes fell on the packs. The moment he saw them his jaw dropped. He almost looked like he’d won the lottery.

“Hey!” He was on his feet faster than a man who’d just been unconscious should have been. He wavered a little, even grabbed Josh’s arm for support, and then ran to grab one of the packs.

Brad was right behind him. “What kind of moron would leave these?”

“My favorite kind,” Joey replied gleefully. He handed a pack to Josh before digging through the one in his hand.

After a short discussion Brad took off to find Norman and Charlie. Joey and Josh stayed behind to go through the packs and take anything that could be useful.

The men laughed at their good fortune and daydreamed about the glory the packs would bring them. Supplies for the struggle, that’s what they kept saying. They knew their leader, who they referred to as Boss, would reward them for their good luck.

I crouched behind the tire. Contorted in the small space all I could do was watch the men take almost everything from the packs. I actually had to bite my tongue when Joey pulled out Raven’s glow sticks and comic books. When I heard the other men running toward us again I finally glanced back at Vaughn.

She put her finger to her lip and shook her head. There wasn’t anything to do. She reached out her hand and smiled sadly. She hated being a victim even more than I did.

My fingers barely touched hers when her eyes widened. Her scream startled me. I fell back into the tire and stared. The next moment I realized she was being dragged from beneath the trailer by her boots. I lunged forward to grab her wrists and, after bracing my feet against the tire, started pulling.

Joey seemed surprised by the resistance. He jerked her feet a couple of times but couldn’t budge her. He ordered Josh to come and take one of her feet. I was no match for the two of them. It was a laughably short struggle once Josh was helping. Vaughn met my eyes and smiled again, this time a scary smile, and then she was out of my hands and standing on the road. I pressed myself back into the tire, shifting until I cold see my sister’s face.

“Well, well,” Joey crooned. “What do we have here?”

“A seriously pissed off Marine,” she gritted out from between clenched teeth..

While Joey held her hands behind her back, Josh took her gun and leaned it up against the same tire I was hiding behind.

“A young woman shouldn’t be out here all alone. It’s dangerous,” Josh said.

“I’m a Marine, not a young woman. And I’m not alone. Those packs you’re stealing from belong to the men in my company.”

“Men?” Joey repeated. “How many? Two? Three?”

“Are you going to help them build up the population again?” Josh leered suggestively.

Joey ran his nose along the side of Vaughn’s neck. “I heard once that Angolan Flu killed off seventy percent of the world’s population. That’s a lot of people to create.”

Vaughn didn’t budge. “You should just go. Now. The men won’t be happy if they get back and you’re still here.”

“Oh, I think we can handle a couple of boys,” Josh replied. He reached up to smooth her black hair away from her face.

“Do not touch me,” Vaughn snarled.

Something in her voice made me lean out from my hiding place a little. I wished I hadn’t once I could see more than just Vaughn’s face. Joey had one of her arms twisted behind her back. Her free hand was fighting off his other hand, which was pawing at her. I couldn’t figure out why she wasn’t fighting, using her Marine skills to get them off of her. Then I realized Josh had her own rifle trained on her.

Vaughn opened her eyes enough to meet mine. She shook her head and snapped them shut again.

“Could you just hurry up please? I haven’t got all day,” she said.

“Don’t worry about time darling. We’ve got plenty of that,” Josh laughed.

“We’ve got to take a prime like you back with us. Boss will be so proud!” Joey added, his hand roughly grabbing at her chest.

“A prime?” Vaughn repeated.

I watched Joey sniff her hair before he responded. “Yeah. As in prime breeding material.”

Her jaw dropped. Whatever she’d been expected them to say, but it definitely wasn’t that, “Excuse me?”

“You heard me,” Joey smiled. I hadn’t had a real shower in over a year and mostly I’d been able to deal with it but something about Joey’s smile made me feel like I hadn’t felt hot water in a decade. “I’ll call first dibs though. Don’t worry about that.”

Thankfully, Norman sprinted to Vaughn’s side before she could react to that. If Joey kept on sniffing her like he was a bloodhound she’d definitely do something about it. That something probably would have resulted in Vaughn and Joey being shot by her rifle and Josh being knocked out by the kick.

“What’s going on?” Norman panted. “Let her go!”

“We’ve got to take her back. She’s definitely a prime!” Joey protested.

“I told you to let her go,” Norman grabbed Joey’s arm.

Joey protested, trying to shake the older man’s hand off, “I already called dibs.”

Norman yanked Vaughn from his grasp. He handed her off to Brad, who shot Joey a smug smile, before stepping into Joey’s face. “If she is a prime then Boss will have a say in that.”

“I called dibs!” Joey reached around Norman to grab Vaughn’s wrist and yank her back to his side.

“Not until Boss has seen her,” Norman pulled her back toward him.

I was so caught up in what was happening with Vaughn that I forgot I was supposed to be hiding. One moment I was hidden behind a tire, my head bouncing back and forth like I was watching a tennis match, and the next someone clamped a hand over my mouth and an arm around my waist. I screamed but the stranger’s hand muffled the sound.

“Shh,” A voice whispered in my ear. “I’m not going to hurt you but you have to keep quiet.”

Charlie. It had to be. He was the only one I hadn’t seen yet. He pulled me back, shuffling until we were out from under the trailer. The whole time he shushed me, as if I wanted to make a noise and have his friends all over me. The other four men were arguing over Vaughn on the other side of the trailer. No one noticed Charlie wasn’t there.

Once he’d moved me away from his group, and slipped my gun off me, he let me go. At first he loosened his hands, trying to gauge if I was going to scream or try to run away. When he was sure I wasn’t going to try anything that stupid, he dropped his arms.

“It’s not safe out here for two young women,” He said matter-of-factly.

I turned to face him. I wanted him to see my face so he’d know I was a person, not an incubator. I didn’t expect to recognize him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Come see me! Leave a comment, ask a question, just... you know... hang out?
> 
>  
> 
> imaginaryhistorianme.tumblr.com


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The end of the showdown on the bridge. And the mystery of the smoke is solved.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW: There's more violence and suggestive language in this chapter.
> 
> Comments and kudos welcome! I encourage them even!

He was Chuck Abernathy. Why were the others calling him Charlie? He’d been ‘Chuck’ for as long as I could remember. He graduated with my sister Bennet. His younger brother, Clark, had been on the field trip to Washington D.C. with me. I hadn’t thought about Clark in almost a year but I’d known him since kindergarten. The brothers had the same dirty blonde hair and the same baby blue eyes. Chuck Abernathy was sweet and thoughtful. He was always respectful of others. He had a white streak that ran from his right temple to the back of his head, he’d told me a horror story once about acquiring after being struck by lightning during a soccer match. He was one of the last people I’d ever expect to find with men who only saw women as potential breeding material.

At least I had the satisfaction of knowing he recognized me too. He sucked in a breath and started to speak again, his hand reaching up to cup my elbow.

I slipped my hand into the back pocket of my jeans, fingers closing around the folding knife I kept there. How Chuck hadn’t seen it was beyond me. He’d approached me from behind and it wasn’t like my jeans were so loose he couldn’t make out the outline or something. I twisted the handle slowly, trying to get the knife in a position I could pull it free of my pocket and open it in one fluid motion. All I had to do was get the blade up to his throat and I’d have the upper hand. I was quick; I knew I could do it.

“Clarke,” Chuck held up his hands, like he was surrendering, “You should – ”

Before I could put my plan into action, one of the other men must have left the Vaughn debate and wandered over to our side of the trailer. I looked over my shoulder to see who had joined us as Chuck’s hand on my elbow went from comforting to a talon-like grasp in no time.

“You found another prime?” Brad asked incredulously. He glanced at the trailer and smirked, “Is this truck full of them or something?”

“Dibs!” Chuck responded quickly. He looked away when I glared at him.

“Another one?” Josh crowed as he rounded the truck. He approached me slowly, studying me.

“You heard me! Dibs!” Chuck repeated. He used his grip on my arm to pull me closer to him.

Someone grabbed my arm and spun me around. I found myself being appraised by Josh and Brad. I didn’t like that at all.

“She’s definitely a prime. She’s probably a better candidate than the other one. You know Boss will want to look at her,” Brad said.

“Do you think they’re sisters?” Josh sounded a little too excited by the idea of Vaughn being my sister. All I could picture in my head was a fly rubbing its hands together.

Chuck ignored Josh and stared down Brad, “I’m the best hunter we’ve got. I’m sure if I tell him I called dibs, he’d respect that.”

Josh finally stopped scrutinizing me. He turned to Chuck and narrowed his eyes, “Why do you want her so bad?”

“Her scars,” Chuck spun me back toward him. He gave me a small smile, a sad smile, before he lifted his hand. He ran a finger down the scar on my cheek. I jerked my head back. Lexa was the only one allowed to touch my scars like that.

“Scars?” Josh leaned over my shoulder to stare at my face. His stale breath made my nose wrinkle in disgust.

“Yeah. Her scars,” Chuck replied. “They mean she’s tough. And probably smart. She’s a survivor. Our kids would be practically unstoppable.”

My head snapped back to face him again at the mention of children.

“Let’s see if she’s got any more then,” Brad snickered.

My mind barely had time to understand his words before hands seized the hem of my shirt. I tried to fight them off but soon Brad and Josh had my shirt over my head.

Josh pinched at my stomach through my tank top, “What’re you hiding girl?”

“I only hide what I’m ashamed of,” I replied calmly.

Then, with so much more boldness than I actually felt, I shook off Chuck’s hand and I yanked my tank top off. Glaring at someone while standing in a sports bra didn’t feel overly effective when I wasn’t on the softball field or in the weight room but the men were stunned enough by my actions that they stopped trying to touch me. Chuck grabbed me around my waist and pulled me back to his side. He picked up my tank top from the ground and handed it to me.

I glared at the men as I took the shirt, “Do I look like I have anything to be ashamed of?”

Chuck glowered at the other men and bit out, “I said I get her first. Until Boss says otherwise, I still say she’s mine.”

Screams from the other side of the trailer cut through our conversation. I dropped to the ground and saw Norman on his knees, holding his head in both hands. Vaughn was being dragged toward the van Lexa and I hid behind earlier. She was struggling against Joey and had almost gotten away but Josh suddenly appeared to help. I yelled at them to stop but Vaughn’s shouts drowned my voice out. I stood and started to run around the truck, determined to get to my sister.

Suddenly the mirror above my head shattered. I covered my head with my arms and screamed. The tiny shards of glass rained down over my arms on their way down to the ground, a dozen or so small cuts appeared instantly in my flesh. The windshield and passenger windows were next. Chuck pulled me back under the trailer. I wrestled away from him enough to duck behind a tire, trying to see what was going on. Brad ran around the truck to Norman’s side, pulling him behind a car for cover.

In all the craziness Vaughn finally managed to break free from Joey and Josh. She ran for her pack. After two or three strides she turned back and sprinted to Josh. She only had to throw one punch to have him cowering next to Joey who could only stare at Vaughn in disbelief. She snatched her rifle, whacking Joey once across the face with the butt before dropping behind another car. She stared through her scope, trying to find the shooter in the trees.

I tried to run to Vaughn’s side but Chuck’s hand clamped around my wrist.

“They know where you’re from Clarke,” He whispered urgently.

“Excuse me?” I tried to shake him off. The pressure of his hand on my bleeding arm had me blinking back tears.

“It’s not as safe as you think!” He looked around.

When I followed his gaze I saw the older men shooting toward the trees and hollering. Turning back to Chuck I said, “Who knows what?”

“They’ve made plans. You aren’t prepared,” Chuck shook his head. He glanced around, assessing the chaos reigning at the moment, “You thought you were. You all did. But Boss… he’s a special kind of dark and twisted Clarke.”

“What are you talking about?”

He shook his head again and glanced over my shoulder. Suddenly his eyes grew dark and his mouth clamped shut. I looked behind me to see Josh, the man who’d ripped off my shirt, watching us from his protected spot behind a car. I turned back to Chuck. He still had a hard look on his face but his eyes were sad, “I’m sorry.”

“About wha-” He punched me hard in the side of my head.

Everything around me dimmed. I fell against the tire of the trailer. I blinked once. Twice. My vision just grew more and more foggy. It was almost like I was in a tunnel and the walls were starting to collapse. Just as I started to tip to the side a hand grabbed my shoulder and righted me.

Chuck’s face filled my narrowing vision, his harsh repeating, “They know Clarke. They know!”

****

I shouldn’t have found so much humor in Brad pouring water over Joey’s head. When Vaughn and Lexa sprinkled just a little on my face after Chuck’s punch knocked me out I felt like I had jumped off the high dive at the pool and couldn’t get back to the surface. I couldn’t do much other than cough and gag and wipe my face repeatedly.

“She’s awake!” Lexa snapped.

“I can see that,” Vaughn barked right back.

“So stop pouring water on her!”

I pulled my shirt up and used it to wipe my face. I winced when the movement pulled at the barely scabbed over shallow cuts on my arm. Then I winced again when I felt the bump already forming on the side of my head. I tried to open my eyes but the sunlight made my head feel like it was going to explode. After releasing a loud and only slightly exaggerated groan I asked, “What happened?”

“We chased them off,” Vaughn replied. I felt her cool hand smoothing over the bump on my head, “Lexa’s horrible aim actually came in handy. I think they thought she was aiming for all those tiny things she hit.”

“What were you aiming for?” I smiled goofily up at my girlfriend.

Vaughn chuckled, “That first shot, the one that hit the mirror was apparently intended for Brad’s back. Lexa knows enough to aim for center mass at least,”

If she’d been aiming for Brad’s back and hit the mirror instead, she’d missed by several feet. Why would Lexa ever volunteer that information to Vaughn? Not wanting my sister to have any more ammunition for harassing her than necessary, I tried to cover for her, “The wind must have kicked up. She’s never tried to hit a target from that distance before.”

“You don’t know where she was when she took the shot Clarke,” Vaughn snorted. She was enjoying herself a little too much.

I opened my eyes, “Vaughn, stop please.”

“Hey! It’s all good,” Vaughn chortled and nudged me. “I’m glad she’s such a horrible shot!”

My eyes finally found Lexa. She was angry. Not just at Vaughn for what I was sure had been relentless teasing for however long I’d been unconscious, but probably at herself because she’d left me alone and I’d been attacked. I sighed, “alright Vaughn.”

“I mean, now I know she could never shoot me from any kind of distance. That’s a relief!”

“Vaughn Elizabeth Griffin!” I yelled, and then grimaced at the throbbing in my head, “We get it! She’s not a very good shot. But don’t you have anything to say to her?”

She had to force herself to stop laughing. After a few deep breaths to sober herself, she offered Lexa a hand, “Thank you for saving my little sister.”

“And you Vaughn. She helped save you too,” I pointed out. I grabbed Lexa’s wrist to keep her from taking Vaughn’s hand.

“I was more concerned about you,” Vaughn replied. Her eyes dropped to the ground next to me. I watched her blink rapidly several times before she sniffed and lifted them again. “I’m sorry Clarke. I should have remembered to grab those packs. It was… I was beyond reckless. It was stupid to just leave them sitting in the open like that.”

“I should have remembered too. It’s not all your fault,” I argued. I tried to sit up more so I could hug her but the slightest shift threw my equilibrium off enough to have the Earth spinning just a little too fast. I pressed my back flat to the warm pavement and waited for the nausea to pass. When it did, I forced my eyes open and met my sister’s guilty grey eyes right away. “Vaughn, I’m okay.”

“They wouldn’t have seen us if I’d hidden those packs,” Vaughn reasoned.

She always did like to be the one bearing the responsibility when things went wrong. It came in handy when we were kids, now it was just her being too noble for her own good.

“Please don’t try to make what happened your fault Vaughn,” I begged. Reaching over, I took her hand in mine and squeezed her fingers. She shook her head. I knew she was about to argue with me so I spoke first, “Besides, you didn’t need to be so worried. I had a plan.”

Lexa finally broke her silence, “A plan? What kind of plan? What were you going to do against four men?”

“Yes. I had a plan. I was going to start with Chuck, who by the way was one of Bennet’s old classmates and apparently goes by Charlie now. I was going to get his guard down and then attack.” I explained. “Lexa, you know Chuck’s brother was with us in D.C. right? Clark Abernathy was one of our classmates on that trip.”

“Attack,” Lexa repeated slowly. She ignored the rest of what I’d said. I knew that look. That was her ‘Clarke’s going to do something stupid and risk herself’ look she got whenever I planned something that put me into even a little bit of danger.

“Yes. Attack,” I nodded.

“How?” Vaughn asked, “With what?”

“He may have taken my gun but he didn’t exactly search me,” I pulled my wicked looking folding knife from my back pocket.

“A knife?” Lexa blanched at the weapon.

I nodded and said, “I took it from that man’s truck back in Washington D.C. but I never used it. I forgot I even had it. I found it a few months ago in the bottom of my old pack. I’ve been practicing with Mr. Thornton, the old Army Ranger. He said nobody would ever expect a sweet looking girl like me to have a knife like this let alone know how to use it.”

Lexa shook her head and looked away, staring at the white line on the road, “I don’t like it. I don’t like knives.”

“I don’t like them anymore than you do. You know that,” I waited until she looked at me. When she finally met my eyes, I dropped Vaughn’s hand and patted the pavement next to me, silently asking her to sit. After a pause she knelt and gave me a little smile. Reaching up, I pushed a lock of hair out of her eyes. I ran my fingertips along her jaw and smiled when she winked. My hand drifted down moved her arm and grasped hers. Her fingers laced with mine my before her eyes fell back to the knife in my other hand. I followed her gaze. Unfolding the blade with a flick of my wrist I held it up for her to see, “I hated it at first, it brought back memories I didn’t want to relive. I had to learn to shut down those feelings when I’ve got one in my hand. I’m still not good at shutting down my feelings.”

“You’ve really been practicing?” Lexa’s voice was scarcely more than a whisper.

“Everyday. Or almost anyway,” I whispered back, “Mr. Thornton says I’m a natural. I can even throw it from a little bit of a distance and hit a target. Not to brag or anything but I could totally hit a dude if he was standing still and only fifteen or twenty feet away.”

“You’re such a badass,” Vaughn rolled her eyes.

“I still don’t like it,” Lexa ignored my sister as she gently cupped my face. Her thumb ran back and forth over the scar Elise’s knife left.

“Wouldn’t you rather she have a back-up weapon to protect herself?” Vaughn broke into our little world with her pointed question. I knew she was hoping she’d get all over-protective.

Lexa narrowed her eyes and hissed out a breath but didn’t take the bait, “You didn’t see her after the last time she had to use a knife to protect herself. Neither one of us handled it well. Of course I want her protected and safe. But I also want her sane.”

“You think she’ll get the vapors?” Vaughn scoffed and rolled her eyes.

“I don’t even know what that means,” Lexa let go of my hand so she could run both of hers through her already disheveled hair, “I just don’t want her to have to use it. That’s all.”

Vaughn opened her mouth to reply but I shook my head, “Stop baiting her Vaughn. She knows I’m not a damsel.”

                  “There aren’t any damsels,” Lexa spoke softly.

“Just me,” I smiled at her wink the turned back to Vaughn, “You refuse to think about anyone but you can protect me. She wants me safe. Maybe you’d get along better if you both realized the two of you are worried about keeping me safe. You think I can’t defend myself. She forgets how to tell me that she just gets a little overbearing when she’s protecting me.”

“You’re sure that’s what she wants?” She arched a brow, which I chose to ignore so I could smile up at Lexa.

“Evermore,” She kissed the tip of my nose.

“Pardon?” Vaughn spoke loudly, trying to interrupt our moment.

I shook my head, my eyes never leaving Lexa’s, “You wouldn’t get it. Let’s just drop the subject okay?”

****

In movies and on television, people were always really reluctant to move someone who had been unconscious. Everyone on screen was worried about concussions and head trauma and all of that. As concerned as Vaughn had been about me since her return, she couldn’t have cared less about agitating a probable brain injury. I only got to rest under the trailer for a few minutes after regaining consciousness because Lexa argued with her about whether or not I should up and walking.

She won the argument of course.

We moved off the bridge, Lexa and Vaughn dragging Rob and Raven’s packs behind them, and settled on a little hill surrounded by trees, overlooking the trees.

Lexa insisted I sit by the fire while she put together my tent. After being shooed away for a fifth time I actually listened. I sat on a log with my arms crossed and glared at the flames. I’d been knocked out, I had a little bit of a goose egg on my head but I wasn’t an invalid! Surely I’d suffered worse injuries playing softball or soccer! I could help. Of course when I’d bent over to pick up a log to add to the fire my vision narrowed back into that tunnel and I felt lightheaded, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t help!

Our sad little trio ate a small dinner in silence. Vaughn still wasn’t ready to admit Lexa had helped her and Lexa was getting even more irritated with her for not liking her. She didn’t even want her gratitude; she just wanted her to look at her without a slightly homicidal gleam in her eye. No matter what kind of conversation I tried to start with the two of them, it fizzled out after a few sentences.

Finally, I had to give up. I stood slowly, waving off Vaughn when she tried to help me to my feet. Lexa was already there with an arm around my waist, “I’m going to bed.”

“I don’t think you should go to sleep yet Clarke,” Lexa spoke quietly as we moved toward the tent.

“I’m tired Woods. You know what happens when I get tired.”

She gave me a small crooked grin, “you get unbearably grumpy. But still, you were out cold just a few hours ago. Isn’t it bad to go to sleep after being knocked out like that?”

“She’ll be fine,” Said Vaughn, “Let her rest. We’ll be on our feet as soon as Rob and Raven get back.”

“But what if it makes her head worse?” Lexa asked. She brushed aside my hair. She grimaced when the bump caused by Chuck’s fist came into view.

“She’s a Griffin. She’s got a hard head,”

“I’ll be fine Lexa,” I cupped her cheek in my hands. Ignoring my sister’s huff of annoyance I gave her a small kiss.

She helped me into the tent and zipped my sleeping bag closed once I’d crawled inside. We had a short whispered conversation before Vaughn called Lexa out of the tent. She wanted her to help her keep watch. She was worried the men might come back with reinforcements.

I nodded off as soon as Lexa zipped the tent closed.

****

It was still dark when a hushed voice woke me. I held my breath, not sure who was talking.

“Why would I joke about that? I’m being completely serious. It was the compound Lexa,” Raven murmured.

“Are you sure?” She asked.

“You think I wouldn’t recognize the place we’ve called home for almost a year now Lexa?” Raven panted. There was a slight pause, I’m sure so Lexa could glare at her, “Yes Lexa, I’m sure. Rob made me run almost the entire way back there,” Raven sounded like she was still trying to catch her breath, “I thought I was going to pass out. The only thing that jerk would say when I asked for a break was ‘work through the pain. It’s weakness leaving your body’ and other stuff like that. Like all of those annoying posters in the weight room at school.”

After a brief hesitation Lexa spoke quietly, “I don’t care what Vaughn says, we need to wake Clarke up. She needs to know.”

That got my interest. What had Vaughn told them? She didn’t want me disturbed?

I was already sitting up when they unzipped the tent. Lexa crawled in first; she didn’t look at all surprised that I was awake and making room for the two of them. Once Raven was inside she closed the tent up again.

“What happened Raven?” I asked.                                                                         

Lexa reached over and laced her fingers through mine, “The smoke was coming from Oak Openings Griffin.”

“ _Nisht gut_ Clarke. _Nisht gut_ ,” Raven shook her head, “There were a lot of our people hurt or killed. I couldn’t count them all. A few of the cabins were still on fire when Rob and I finally got there. Easily half of the cabins were destroyed.”

I squeezed Lexa’s hand, “Who would attack us? And how did they get inside?”

“They must have had help from someone inside. Someone to let them in,” Lexa said.

“The walls are too high for them to climb and the guards would have seen them in the neutral zone if they’d approached,” Raven shook her head. “What if they claimed to come in peace? Then they started shooting when they didn’t like what they heard?”

“Did you see…?” I couldn’t finish my question. I couldn’t ask if she’d seen Aden or Octavia or Harper or the girls among the injured or dead.

Raven shook her head again, “We didn’t get that close. There were still some raiders inside the walls. Rob didn’t want them to see us.”

I tightened my fingers around Lexa’s again. Then I dropped her hand and wrestled my way out of my sleeping bag. Lexa tried to stop me, she tried to calm me down but I couldn’t hear anything. I could only think about Aden and how she was supposed to be safe. How Octavia and Harper and Lucette and Ava were supposed to be safe and they were supposed to keep Aden safe together. Aunt Gigi and Ona had promised to keep an eye on all of them. That had been the whole point of leaving him behind, of leaving all of them behind.

Without having to speak a word I knew Raven and Lexa would understand what I wanted. They would know where I wanted to go and what I wanted to do. They would have my back if Vaughn tried to stop me.

My tent was halfway down when Vaughn and Rob reappeared. Rob wordlessly took the poles from me and motioned toward my sister. She held out a hand. I took it and let her lead me away from the camp.

“The Rob, Lexa, and Raven are going to go back and look for survivors,” She said once we were far enough away from the others.

“And what are we going to do?” I narrowed my eyes. I was pretty sure I wasn’t going to like whatever she said next.

“We’re going to keep heading toward Wyoming.”

I shook my head, “No, we aren’t. You and Rob can go ahead and search for the family. Lexa and I will follow with whoever wants to join us.”

“You can’t just bring people to the cabin Clarke,” Vaughn argued, “You and Raven are expected. Lexa will probably grudgingly be welcomed. That’s it.”

“Just get Rob and go,” I rolled my eyes and pulled away from her.

She tsked at me like our mother and grandmother always did when we used to argue in front of them, “Clarke. Mom and Dad are expecting us. They’ve been expecting us for a year. You know that.”

“And I’ll be there as soon as I can be Vaughn.”

“So let’s go.”

I shook my head, “No. I’m not leaving Lexa behind. I never should have left Aden behind. If you’re in that much of a hurry to get to the family then you can go. We’ll be there sooner or later.”

“What am I supposed to tell our parents? Or our grandparents? Or Bubbe and Dedko?”

“ _Mischpoche_. Or, since you’re you, whatever you want I guess,” I walked back toward the camp. The conversation wasn’t going to go anywhere. She wanted me to leave with her, mostly it think because she still wanted to get me away from Lexa, and I needed to make sure my friends, my other family, were okay. It was an impasse. Vaughn had never been good at conceding ground when she ought to and I wasn’t good at giving up on my friends.

The others had everything packed and ready when I reached the hilltop again. Lexa held up my pack for me and helped my slide it on. Raven poured some more water over the ashes before joining us.

Lexa snapped a strap that crossed my chest. When her hands hesitated, I looked up. She was studying me. Her hands moved to my shoulders, “Are you okay?”

I nodded, “Vaughn wants me to go with her toward Wyoming. She thinks I ought to let you and Raven stay back with Rob to search for survivors.”

“Is that what you want?” She asked hesitantly.

“Don’t be dumb Woods,” I kissed her cheek, “You’re not getting rid of me that easily.”

She winked at me, “I had a thousand miles to get rid of you last year Griffin. You aren’t going anywhere.”

Without waiting for Vaughn or Rob to join us, we headed toward home. Once we crossed the river we had an easy enough time walking back to the compound. My sister and Rob didn’t take long to catch up with us but given how little Vaughn spoke I guessed she’d argued against going back to Oak Openings.


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Clarke and her friends enter the compound after the raid. What they find shocks and saddens them.
> 
>  
> 
> TW: Death appears in this chapter. Nothing too overly graphic. There's no violence, just the aftermath of the raid on the compound.

Since we didn’t reach the compound until just after the sun had set we waited until the next day to actually approach. The sun was nearly directly overhead when we hid our packs in the woods near the compound. I watched in complete fascination as Vaughn and Rob camouflaged our packs to look like little shrubs. If I hadn’t known where to look, I’d never have guessed the plants weren’t real.

Slowly, we crept up through the trees, stopping at the edge of what we called the neutral zone, which was just land we’d cleared of trees and other plants for clear sight lines. The NZ started thirty feet from the walls and ran all the way around the compound. We looked for any breaches the raiders could have created or ladders they could have used to get into the compound. When we didn’t find anything, we made our way to the main gate. It was standing wide open. There weren’t any raiders inside the compound, at least not that we could see.

What we could see were bodies. So many bodies. It looked like the raiders had gone through the compound and killed anyone they could find. Our population had been small, possibly a couple thousand people spread throughout the hundreds of acres of Metro Park we’d made our home. In the section of the compound we lived in there were no more than a few hundred. From the looks of it, at least half of them were dead. I forced myself to look at each and every body we passed. Each time I hoped I wouldn’t be met with the lifeless eyes of one of my friends.

Following Rob’s lead, we made our way slowly from one building to another. His path took us close to our leader’s cabin. Since the cabin belonged to her grandmother, Lexa moved around us and entered.

I was right behind her when she stepped over the threshold barely biting back a gasp when I saw her cousin Thad lying in a pool of blood in the middle of the living room. Lexa sprinted to the office, throwing open the door. I caught up to her and looked over her shoulder. Lexa’s grandmother was sitting in her rocking chair behind her desk. It would have looked like she was sleeping if not for the bloodstain in the middle of her shirt, right over her heart.

I slid my gun behind my back and wrapped my arms around Lexa’s waist. Her grandmother was her hero. Ona was a quaint little Irishwoman who may have been in her seventies but most days she had more energy, and caused more mischief, than a seven-year-old. In fact, I’d had to scold her more than once for planting mischievous ideas in Aden’s head. Every time the woman would smile at me, all crooked and cute and chuckle under her breath, not even having the decency to look a tad bit ashamed. Her fiery auburn hair had this white streak that ran back from her right temple. It was like a visual indicator of her feisty personality.

Lexa’s arms covering mine brought me back to the present. Her head dropped, her chin pressed into her chest. I held her tighter when I felt her shudder and tighter still when I heard the first sob.

We stood in that doorway for a while. I held her and let her get out that first little bit of shocked grief. In The Now we were used to losing people. Usually though, we lost people to the Angolan Flu, other kinds of illnesses, injuries, or the occasional raider attack on our scouts. The raiders never attacked large groups of people. Groups meant protection. An attack on our compound was beyond impossible for us to imagine.

After what felt like hours, Lexa straightened. Her arms dropped and her fists balled at her side. I let her go but stayed right behind her.

When she stayed too quiet I reached up and placed my hand where her neck met her shoulder, “Lexa?”

“What kind of people do this?” She whispered.

“People who are desperate,” I replied.

“But they could have just joined the compound. It’s not like we didn’t have the room or the resources for more people. We’d have welcomed them. Why attack us?”

“They didn’t want to be part of your people,” Vaughn spoke softly from somewhere behind me, “They wanted what you built here. It’s easier to come in and clear everyone out so they can take over what’s already here. They don’t want your way of life. They want the one they used to have. Assimilation was never their goal.”

Lexa stiffened. I thought she was going to round on Vaughn, that she’d demand she leave her grandmother’s cabin. Instead she turned slowly and looked at her over my shoulder, “You’re right. That means they’ll be back soon. We’ve got to go.”

“Lexa?” I didn’t understand what she was saying.

“She’s right Griffin. They want our homes and our farms and our water reserves. They probably only left to get the rest of their people,” She made a show of priming her gun before meeting my eyes. Cupping my face in her hands she said, “They’re going to be sleeping in our beds tonight.”

“Let’s get some supplies and get out of here before they make their next appearance then,” Raven said.

Lexa pressed a kiss to my forehead and stepped around me. I stared at Ona for a few seconds before closing the door. I followed the others out of the cabin, pausing long enough to close Thad’s eyes along the way. Once we were outside, Lexa and Raven said a few quick prayers. We all regretted not having time for proper burials.

Moving as quickly as we could, we made our way to our cabins. Lexa ran through hers quickly with Rob while Raven and I grabbed what we could from ours and Vaughn stood watch outside. I found a seriously ticked off Tank locked in my bedroom. Seeing the dog worried me. Aden would never leave Tank without a fight. The raiders must have heard him in our cabin because nothing seemed to have been touched. I knew Tank would have made a ruckus at all the strangers in his territory, hurting his people. I hugged him and cried a little before packing up my clothes.

Without a word, I left my home and motioned for Raven and Vaughn to follow me. Lexa nodded as she came out of her cabin and grabbed the trail wagon from her front yard before she fell in step with Raven. Tank never left my side. He was never more than a few inches away from my leg.

I led the way to the newly built police station. Raven and I had worked hard to make it the most secure building in the park. Unlocking the front door, I led everyone through two more doors before opening a third to reveal the compound’s armory. We had seventeen hunting rifles, twenty-three semi-automatic rifles, forty-eight handguns, thirty-three shot guns, nine recurve bows, sixteen crossbows, four slingshots, five swords, over one hundred knives, and more ammunition than I’d ever thought we’d be able to scavenge.

“Who goes through the trouble of a raid and leaves all this?” Rob shook his head.

“We made this place look like it was just another cabin for a reason. We didn’t want a neon sign pointing toward our stockpile,” Raven replied, “They probably planned on coming back and searching through everything later. Suckers.”

Working quickly, we piled boxes of ammunition and weapons into the wagon. The knives were shoved into an empty duffle bag. By the time we left the armory, which we’d stripped bare, we each had numerous rifles and shot guns strapped to us and handguns shoved in whatever pockets we could find. Raven grinned as she strapped the swords to her back and hips. She grumbled like an angry toddler when she had to give the last one to Lexa because she couldn’t figure out a way to strap it on without it being at an odd angle and constantly falling out of its scabbard.

Moving back through the compound we made our way to our packs at a crawl. Once there we decided to sweep the compound one more time to see it we can find any survivors, even though we’d already checked everyone we passed, then we’d head to my old house a few miles away. Raven climbed the tree and hid the knife filled duffle bag in its branches. We stashed the guns and bows and ammunition in a hollow tree nearby, electing Rob to stay behind as a guard.

We approached the compound again only to find it swarming with raiders. The vultures were grabbing our dead by their wrists and ankles, dragging them to a huge fire. We watched in horror as body after body was tossed into the flames. Only Lexa’s hand on my arm kept me from charging into the compound and killing every raider I could see.

I couldn’t hold back the gasp when I saw the giantess from the bookstore grab the body of a little girl by the arm and drag her to the flames. Just beyond her I could see the young girl from the bookstore watching in horror as the flames consumed the body. Vaughn and Lexa had to drag Raven back when she tried to charge into the compound.

We found Rob leaning against the trunk of a tree when we returned to the stockpile. His eyes studied Vaughn for a moment before he said, “there’s more smoke.”

“They’re burning the bodies,” She explained as she allowed him to wrap her in a soft embrace.

Raven growled and stomped to her hidden swords, strapping them on one-by-one once again. When she finished she turned to find Vaughn staring at her. She bristled at the attention, “what?”

“You okay?” Vaughn asked quietly.

“Of course. I just saw the village I helped build destroyed and burning, not to mention overrun with outsiders. Oh, and let’s not forget seeing the bodies of people I spent the last year talking to daily, people I tried so hard to protect, being tossed into a bonfire like they were cordwood,” Raven rolled her eyes. Then she shrugged and put on a too-happy smile, “what is there to be upset about Vaughn? It’s not like seeing all those bodies in the flames brings to mind stories Bubbe and Dedko told me. Let’s just go. You got your way Vaughn. We have no home to regret leaving now. When do we leave for Wyoming Sarge?”

I think the harsh salute she gave after her rant is what tipped the scales. Vaughn could have gone all kinds of harsh on our cousin. Instead she reached up and closed her hands over Raven’s shoulders. Waiting until Raven met her eyes, Vaughn shook her head once and said, “Raven, this is something you get to grieve over.”

“Well thanks for the permission,” Raven drawled, looking over her shoulder into the woods.

Vaughn’s knuckles started to turn white on her shoulders. She leaned in and forcing her to look back at her. It was always weird seeing Vaughn talk to Raven like that. They were basically the same height. Where I have to look up at Raven, Vaughn has to look down just slightly. “Raven, I didn’t want this. You know that. Yes, I want to find the family and I wanted you and Con with me. But this… I have never wanted this. But Raven, if we hadn’t left, you know some of us would have ended up in that fire.”

“How do you know some of my family isn’t?” She shot back. Her voice wavered and her eyes slowly filled with tears.

“Raven,” I stepped up next to my sister, placing a hand on her elbow. She lowered her arms and stepped back, allowing me to move in front of our cousin. “We didn’t see any of them. We looked and they weren’t there.”

I said it for her benefit. I didn’t believe it. I dreaded the idea of never knowing what happened to my friends.

“Not seeing them doesn’t mean a thing,” she snapped.

“It means for now we get to assume they’re okay,” Rob said from her place next to Vaughn. “And if we want to be safe and have a place to organize a search, we need to go now.”

****

It took several trips to transport the entirety of the armory to the house. The moon had risen by the time we locked down for the night.

I stood in the living room and stared out the window toward Oak Openings. We were only a few miles from people who would rather destroy a community than become members of it. A few miles from people who may have killed my friends.

“Aden,” I whispered. I didn’t know what happened to him. That was the worst part. If I knew he was dead, I thought I’d be able to deal with it somehow. Not knowing was terrible.

“He could be fine,” Lexa spoke from behind me.

“He could be dead,” I replied, more sharply than I’d meant, “He could be in that fire.”

“Griffin, you don’t know anything is wrong.”

“You don’t know everything is okay!” I shot back. “Everything is wrong Lexa. He was supposed to be safe there!”

“You need to stay positive.”

I scoffed, “The glass is half full? I should be blindly optimistic?”

“Not blindly, but look for the good things.”

“There is no electricity, there is no civilization, there are dead people everywhere, there are sick people everywhere,” I said. I suddenly wished I didn’t hate the taste of alcohol. I could have used something to dull the ache overtaking my chest. “We don’t know if our friends are dead! We don’t know if Aden is dead!”

“But there is still good,” Lexa replied softly.

“Where?”

“Well…” Lexa blinked a few times, “There’s us. That’s pretty good.”

I took a deep breath, “I didn’t mean it like that Woods.”

“I know but sometimes I think we both forget that we’re good,” She responded tenderly. “And you have to remember we didn’t see Harper or Octavia in the compound. They could have gotten away with the kids.”

“Then where are they?”

“I don’t know. But Harper’s smart. She’ll figure out a way to find us,” Lexa sounded sure of that.

I nodded. For the time being I had to make myself believe Harper and Octavia had gotten away with Aden and the girls. And that my aunt and uncle and cousins were safe somewhere too. I turned to face Lexa, “your grandmother.”

“She lived a good life. I’m sure she was trying to compromise with whoever those people are,” Lexa smiled sadly. “It definitely wasn’t the way she wanted to go but I think she died trying to keep everyone safe.”

“Are you okay?”

“No. But I wasn’t really expecting to see her again. We said our forever goodbye the day before yesterday Clarke. She even said a prayer for us in Irish. We were at peace with knowing we’d be apart, possibly for the rest of this life.”

I hadn’t thought of that. When Lexa insisted on joining me on my trip to Wyoming I’d only thought about having her with me. I hadn’t considered she’d be separated from her family for at least a year, probably longer. I’d never felt more selfish than I did in that moment.

“I’m sorry Lexa,” I sniffled as tears filled my eyes. So selfish.

She shook her head and wrapped me in her arms, “Clarke, if I’d stayed behind I’d probably be dead. Vaughn was right about that. I wouldn’t be with you. Even if I did survive that raid you wouldn’t have had a way of knowing.”

“But…”

“No. I’m not sorry Clarke. I mean I’m not happy she’s gone. Or that Thad is gone. But I’m with you. That is a good thing,” Lexa reassured calmly. Once again, a feeling of selfishness rose in my chest. Her grandmother and cousin had been murdered and she was comforting me. Somehow the situation was backwards from the way it should have been. Lexa must have felt me stiffen because she shook her head again and pressed a kiss to my temple. “I’m just glad to know you’re safe. That’s my step one. Step two, we figure out where that genius friend of ours would go.”

“Harper is a genius,” I agreed before I leaned my forehead against her shoulder. I could feel the adrenaline I’d been operating on draining from my system. I was going to crash as soon as I found something to ease my headache.

“We’ll handle step two in the morning,” Lexa rubbed her hands up and down my back. “There’s nothing we can do tonight anyway.”

She released me but took my hand in her. She shot Vaughn a look as she led me up the stairs to my room. She turned her back while I changed into some basketball shorts and one of her t-shirts. I crawled into bed and stared at her. I didn’t know what she was planning on doing for the night. The house had five bedrooms; she could sleep in any one of them. Or, since I shared a room with Bennet, Lexa could sleep in her bed.

When she took off her shirt, leaving herself clothed in basketball shorts and a sports bra, and crawled into bed next to me, forcing me to move closer to the wall, I was thrilled. I really didn’t want to be alone. We were just getting settled when Tank scratched at the door. Lexa rolled out of bed and opened it so the dog could come in. After glancing at me, then the other two beds, Tank chose to jump up on Bennet’s bed.

“What about Vaughn?” I asked when Lexa made her way back to my bed and lifted the blankets.

“We don’t know where Aden is. My grandmother is dead. My cousin is dead. Our friends are missing. Raiders have taken over the cabin I built for you with my bare hands. You think I care what Vaughn has to say about me sharing a bed with you tonight?” Lexa stretched out on her back, holding out her arm in invitation.

I shifted closer and curled up next to her, my head resting on her chest and my hand over her heart. Her hand covered mine and she sighed.

“I thought he was going to be safe,” I couldn’t hold back the sobs anymore. Tears didn’t just flood my eyes, they came so fast they hit Lexa’s bare chest before I could wipe them away.

“He should have been safe. We had no way of knowing the raiders were going to attack,” Lexa’s arms wrapped around me like iron bands. “We had no way of knowing the raiders even knew about Oak Openings Clarke.”

I bawled as much as I could between stuttered out guilt-ridden statement after anguished statement about how we should have known better. I questioned our logic. I went through our previously plan, the one I’d thought was so well laid out, and picked it apart. The self-reproach churning in my gut wouldn’t give me a moment of peace. Lexa met all my doubt head-on, never allowing me to feel too sorry or too angry with myself.

When I finally quieted down, Lexa hummed an old song to me. I recognized the tune but couldn’t place it. Her hand pressed mine to her heart while the other rubbed up and down my side. She was every bit the rock I needed her to be that night. I hoped she felt the same about me, but I never allowed myself to believe she did.

I was almost asleep when Lexa shifted like she was trying to get out of bed. For all her talk about not caring what Vaughn had to say about her being with me, I knew she was worried she’d catch her there.

I threw an arm over her hips and held tight, “Don’t even think about it.”

“I know I said I didn’t care but she could kill me with a spoon.”

“I don’t think that’s something the Marines teach Woods,” I yawned, “If she gets annoyed again I’ll deal with her. Besides, I told Raven to sleep up here too.”

“So we’ll have a chaperone?” Lexa settled back into the bed.

“Exactly.”

Lexa kissed my forehead and started humming again. Just before I fell asleep I felt her lift my hand and press a kiss to each of my fingers.

“Hey Clarke?”

“I’m sleeping Lexa.”

“Wake up,” She kissed my forehead again.

“No. You join me in the happy land of sleep,” I reached up to pat her face a few times.

Lexa batted at my hand before she shifted enough that she could kiss me deeply. When she pulled back she nipped lightly at my bottom lip, “This’ll only take a second.”

I opened my eyes. I wanted to glare at her but I couldn’t. Sometimes her kisses made it impossible for me to be mad at her, that goofy smile on her face didn’t help my irritation either. “Fine.”

She lifted my right hand and slipped a ring on my ring finger, “It was my great-grandmother’s ring. Mamó gave it to me before we left the yesterday.”

“A ring?” I stared at my finger where I could feel the weight of the ring.

“It’s her claddagh.”

“Her whata?”

“Claddagh,” Lexa chuckled when I repeated the word back to her, “Right. ‘Claw-da’. Good job! You’ve seen the claddagh before. The hands, the heart, and the crown?”

I rubbed my eyes and yawned, “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“The hands of friendship support the heart of love which supports the crown of loyalty.”

I stared harder in the darkness, “Okay. I’ll take you word for it.”

Just then, the door opened and Raven came in with one of her glows ticks leading the way. She froze when she saw us in bed.

“I’d ask if I’m interrupting something but you invited me up here,” Raven smiled. Her words took me back a year to Washington D.C. when she’d said the same thing after I’d insisted she come down to my hotel room. She was more than a little shocked to find me alone with Lexa Woods that day.

“Very funny Raven,” Lexa laughed.

“Vaughn’s not happy that Lexa is up here,” Raven warned. She walked to Bennet’s bed, kicked off her boots and sat down, “Rob actually stopped her from coming up here though. Like physically held her back and wouldn’t let her go. The guy might indeed have a backbone.”

“She can get as mad as she wants. I don’t care,” I responded absentmindedly. I was trying to see the ring in the light offered by the glow stick.

Suddenly the glow stick hit me in the side of the head. Lexa picked it off the bed and held it up for me.

“I tried to catch it,” Lexa laughed, “I blame Raven. It was a bad toss.”

“Maybe if you’d played a real sport you’d have developed some hand-eye coordination,” Raven laughed.

“I could knock a pop can off your head from 20 yards,” Lexa retorted.

“I can knock a pop can off home plate from center field.”

Lexa snapped something back but I ignored them both so I could study the ring. Like Lexa described there were hands holding a heart and a crown on top of the heart.

Seeing my interest, Lexa explained, “In Ireland, a mother gives one of these to her daughter. If it is worn on the right hand with the heart pointed out, away from the wearer, it means she’s unattached. If it’s on the right hand with the heart pointed toward the wearer it means she’s taken. If it’s on her left hand with the heart pointed out it means she’s engaged and if it’s on her left hand with the heart pointed in it means she married.”

“Oh,” I smiled and stared at the ring. The heart was pointed in. “So I’m taken?”

“Yes. You are very much taken,” Lexa kissed me again. She only pulled away when Raven faked gagged.

“Get a room,” Raven muttered.

Lexa laughed, “We have a room. You’re in it.”

“I was invited!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Come and see me! Leave a question/comment/prompt!
> 
> imaginaryhistorianme.tumblr.com


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Some Clexa fluff to help recover from the massacre at Oak Openings (aka the compound). Vaughn may be turning over a new leaf. Raven is Raven.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 6K words for you! I hope you enjoy!
> 
> Comments and kudos welcomed and enjoyed here! Please let me know what you think.

The feeling of waking up in Lexa’s arms again was incredible. It was even better when Vaughn wasn’t glaring over us or throwing Lexa’s hand into her face. We were able to wake up on our own and stay in bed for a while.

Vaughn must have been trying to give us space after everything we’d seen, heard, and smelled at Oak Openings. Or maybe Rob was still refusing to let her storm up to my room and demand Lexa’s absence. I kind of hoped it was the second option; the idea of Rob actually refusing to let Vaughn do what she wanted was funny. While we waited for the other shoe to drop, Lexa and I talked and cried some more. Lexa sniffled more than a few times when the conversation turned to Oak Openings and her grandmother.

Raven crawled out of bed shortly after we woke up. She groaned as she twisted her back one way then the other. She bent in half and touched her toes, moaning the whole time. When she finally straightened she rolled her shoulders.

“What are you doing?” I laughed and watched her contort herself into positions that could never have been comfortable.

“I didn’t exactly have a chance to stretch before I went for that little fun run the other day. My muscles feel like they’re all made of stone or something,” She winced and rolled her neck. The resulting pop must have relieved some of her discomfort, even though it made me cringe, because she smiled and she said, “I’ll see you guys downstairs.”

“Or not,” Lexa muttered, turning her head to bury her face in her pillow.

Raven chuckled as she left the room, only limping a little. Seconds later her head appeared in the doorway again, “What are the chances Vaughn has something made for breakfast?”

“Pretty good I’d say. I’m positive she and Rob have been up plotting since dawn,” I replied. Then I paused and thought about the day before. I sighed before adding, “there’s also a good chance they haven’t gone to bed at all. So yay for grumpy and tired Vaughn!”

Raven nodded. Her eyes rolled and brows came together in a weird sort of annoyed yet hopeful expression, “Well, what are the chances she isn’t going to ask me a million questions about the two of you when I get down there?”

“Not good,” Lexa answered with a sigh. “She’s probably waiting at the bottom of the stairs with her hands on her hips.”

“You’re probably right,” Raven groaned. “Probably tapping her foot too. Totally in disappointed-mom-style.”

“So play the game,” I said.

The simple suggestion instantly cheered my cousin up. She grinned and closed the door. I could hear her running down the stairs.

“The game?” Lexa repeated.

I shrugged, “Bubbe and Dedko have twenty great-grandchildren. Eight speak either Yiddish or Slovak. Four of us are learned both. Raven and I are fluent in both. The other eight, including Vaughn, refused to learn to speak either of them. They can understand if we speak to them but then they can’t respond all that well. So Raven and I will speak to each other in one or the other but won’t respond to anyone if they don’t speak the same. It drives Vaughn crazy.”

“You freeze her out with a language she can understand?”

“Watching her become more and more infuriated has been one of the highlights of many family gatherings,” I explained through my giggles. “Bennet only speaks Slovak. Playing the game with her is almost as good. She gets so mad when we switch to Yiddish.”

Of course it wasn’t fair for us to send Raven downstairs to face Vaughn on her own but I actually wanted to talk to Lexa without Vaughn’s constant sighing and throat clearing. Besides, I knew Raven would have fun playing the game for a while anyway. She’d use it as an exercise in distracting Vaughn. Or in frustrating her. Either way, Raven lived for that kind of thing.

Raven hadn’t been downstairs for more than a few minutes before the door opened slowly and Vaughn appeared. Lexa was leaning on one of her elbows with her head propped upon her hand facing me as I was sitting with my back against the wall. She was talking about her grandmother so she didn’t see my sister. She was telling me a story about her grandmother’s childhood in Ireland when I met Vaughn’s eyes over her shoulder.

I expected her to come charging in the room and demand my help with something. I figured she’d want me away from Lexa as quickly as possible. Instead she leaned against the doorframe and crossed her arms over her chest. She just stood and watched us while Lexa spoke. I tried to ignore her and focus on Lexa’s words but it was impossible. Something in the look on Vaughn’s face made me not want to push her. She looked calm for the first time since she’d appeared in my cabin at the compound less than a week before.

I pushed a lock of chestnut hair out of Lexa’s eyes. She caught my hand and held it against her cheek, closing her eyes with a sigh. I glanced up at my sister again, expecting her to be glaring at us now that we were actually touching. I was shocked when I realized she had a small smile stretching her lips. My brows came together. Vaughn’s smile grew.

Finally she held up a hand, her fingers all stretched out. She mouthed something a couple of times. I hadn’t improved in the lip-reading department since the bookstore, Vaughn had to know that. The third time through I realized she was asking me to come downstairs in five minutes. Once I nodded she closed the door softly behind her.

I couldn’t believe it. She was actually giving me time and space. What happened to convince her Lexa and I were okay alone?

I leaned over and kissed Lexa softly before encouraging her to tell me another story. She laughed her way through a story about her grandfather’s proposal to her grandmother. There were tears rolling down her cheeks and even though I knew some of them were sad tears, I thought most were happy.

“Lexa, why aren’t you falling apart?” I asked after she finished the story.

“That’s not really how the Irish grieve,” She replied. She fell onto her back and sighed. Then she took my right hand in one of hers and held it over her face. With her free hand she twisted the claddagh around my finger over and over again.

“What do you mean?”

She turned her head and smiled up at me. Dropping my hand to the center of her chest she covered it with hers, “It’s not that we don’t get sad when a loved one dies. We do. But we prefer to celebrate their life. We tell their stories and we share memories to keep them alive in our hearts and minds.” Lexa lifted her head and tugged on my arm, pulling me down just enough to press a kiss to my lips. Then, as her head hit her pillow, she said, “Ona always told me sometimes you have to follow your head and sometimes you have to follow your heart. Wisdom, true wisdom, is knowing which to follow when the time is right. She always said our family motto was ‘ _is eagna ceann agus croí_ ’ you know?” She laughed at my expression, which was probably a look of pure confusion. “That’s Irish for ‘wisdom is head and heart’ Clarke. You’re not the only one who can speak another language.”

“Show-off,” I laughed and poked her chest lightly. “So that’s why you haven’t really been crying?”

“I guess, yeah. I’m sad… no I’m completely devastated that she’s gone. I’m shattered Thad’s gone. But I was able to spend some of the best times of my life with them. And I get to tell you all their stories. So they’re gone but they aren’t really gone.”

Lexa chuckled then and told me a story about Thad trying to ask out a senior when he was a freshman. Thad had only done it on a dare but the girl was in on it. She said yes and asked for his address so she could pick him up later that night. Apparently he hadn’t planned on that because he passed out.

“I’ve heard this story before,” I beamed down at her.

“How? I’ve never told you.”

I nodded, that was true. I’d heard the story from a different source. I chuckled and explained, “The senior was my cousin Vitoria.”

“Your cousin was Pass-Out-Hot-Senior?” Lexa’s eyes grew round in shock.

“That… that’s just…” I shook my head and laughed. “Who came up with that? What a horrible nickname.”

“We were like eleven or something,” Lexa defended.

“What’s that? You were lame?” I shifted away from her hand as she tried to poke my side. “No wonder I didn’t give you the time of day when we were younger. I was too cool for you!”

“Too cool for me? Please Griffin,” She rolled her eyes before continuing her quest to poke and tickle. “How about the time I saved you from a concussion at that football game? Or the time I scored that hat trick in the State Semis? How lame was I then?”

I just smiled and listened to her rant about all the amazing things she’d done and how I ought to be impressed. I knew she was kidding, her ego was healthy, that was for sure, but she wasn’t full of herself.

Once she ran out of steam, she started telling more stories about her cousins and aunts and uncles and grandparents. I lost count of the sagas she told me. I wanted to listen to her talk and laugh all day but I knew it’d been more than five minutes. It was only a matter of time before Vaughn would make another trip up the stairs if I didn’t make an appearance soon. There was no way she’d be so understanding a second time around. I was about to make up some excuse when Lexa stopped laughing and looked up at me again.

She cupped my cheek in one of her hands, her thumb tracing over the thin scar, “We’re going to find Aden, Clarke. I know we are.”

The statement came out of nowhere. We hadn’t mentioned Aden since the night before. I’d been actively trying to not think about him until I absolutely had to. I put my hand over hers, “I hope you’re right Lexa. I don’t know what I’ll do if we don’t.”

“I know Harper and Octavia figured something out. They weren’t there, in the compound I mean. We’d have seen them. They got out with the kids,” Lexa spoke with such conviction I almost believed her. She was so sure I felt guilty for not absolutely believing her words.

“I know,” I leaned down to kiss her before I crawling over her and getting out of my bed.

She followed my example. She found the jeans she’d discarded the night before. Then she went to the closet I shared with Bennet and until she found a drawer full of my t-shirts. With a wink she picked one out and pulled it over her head.

“Stop ruining my shirts! This is the end times you know!”

“We’ve got this Griffin,” She kissed me and walked to the door. She leaned back against it and smiled, “Get dressed so Vaughn doesn’t have to come back up here.”

****

Rob and Vaughn had a breakfast of MREs, not so delicious military issued dehydrated food packs, hot and waiting for us on the table. The survival food our parents left behind would sustain us for at least a few months. They’d stored away enough for our large family to live off of for a month so with half the number in the house and us adding to the provisions with hunting and gathering meant it would last longer. Today’s menu featured scrambled eggs and bacon with a biscuit made from a recipe Raven found in one of Dad’s survival book.

Vaughn sank into the chair at the head of table, where Dad used to sit, as soon as Lexa and I walked into the kitchen. Rob took the chair to her left. She must have told him my seat was to Dad’s right; it’d been that way for as long as I could remember. Bennet tried to trade me chairs right before my trip to Washington. I told her she could sit there while I was gone but I wasn’t giving up my seat. I was kind of a picky eater in The Before and Dad would eat the food I didn’t want while Mom pretended like she didn’t notice. I slid into my seat and smiled at my sister.

After a brief hesitation Lexa sat next to me. She stared at the steaming plate in front of her for a moment before glancing at me out of the corner of her eye. I could tell she thought the meal was a trap. While I agreed it probably was, hot food was hot food. The look Raven shot at me told me she was ready for the trap to be sprung too.

Even though I knew the meal was most likely a ruse. It was a calming technique Mom had used often before telling us something she knew we weren’t going to be happy about, usually involving an annoying cousin coming to stay with us or a trip to the dentist, it was nice to eat a meal like a family again. For the first time since Vaughn’s appearance at Oak Openings we talked and laughed during a meal. Tank begged for food but when Rob gave in and offered him some eggs the dog only sniffed at it a few times then huffed out a breath and laid down on my feet.

Of course, given what we’d seen at the compound, the laughing and joking and giving each other a hard time was kept to a minimum. Even Raven seemed to be minding what she was saying. None of us mentioned the compound. It would only bring sadness into our little cocoon.

When we’d finished our feast of MREs I expected the mood would shift. I figured Vaughn would start barking orders and sighing whenever Lexa got within ten feet of me. I was pleasantly surprised when she turned to Lexa and spoke softly, like the Vaughn I’d grown up with.

“Lexa, would you mind if I talked to Clarke for a few minutes?” Vaughn looked at my girlfriend and spoke to her without snarling for the first time. “I just want to sort some things out with her. She can fill you in after we’ve finished.”

To say my girlfriend was too shocked to speak would have been an understatement. She could nod and started to lean over to kiss me. Then she froze. Her eyes darted from me to Vaughn. My sister didn’t make a sound. I was facing Lexa so I couldn’t see my sister’s reaction. Whatever it was, Lexa must have read it as at least slightly favorable because she actually gave me a chaste kiss before excusing herself.

Once we were alone Vaughn led me out onto the back porch. She leaned back against the railing and crossed her arms over her chest. I closed the door behind me and moved to her side, studying our backyard.

“What do you want to do?” She asked.

“What do you mean?” I settled my hands on top of the railing, leaning forward.

“About Wyoming? About the family?”

I shrugged “I don’t know. I know we have to get to them but after this…”

“So we wait a few days,” Vaughn turned so she was facing the yard too, her shoulder brushed against mine, “Maybe a week. We find your friends and make sure their safe. Then we leave.”

“Vaughn,” I shook my head. I knew I couldn’t leave Aden behind again. I also knew that wouldn’t make my sister very happy, “We have to take him with us.”

It was Vaughn’s turn to shake her head, “We’ve talked about this Clarke.”

We argued back and forth about taking Aden with us. I knew he’d slow us down. I knew he wouldn’t be able to help much with keeping us safe. I did argue when Vaughn said he would only consume food and not provide any. Aden was a born and bred hunter. His father and grandfather had been taking him into the woods since he learned to walk. He was more comfortable shooting a deer than I was, he could easily set up a half dozen different types of snares and he knew more knots than I’d ever realized existed. The boy was resourceful.

Eventually I couldn’t take the arguing anymore. I headed toward the door, “He’s going with us. If you don’t like it, you and Rob should just leave now. We’ll see you in a few months.”

“You know that isn’t going to happen Clarke,” Vaughn replied, following me to the door.

I shook my head when she reached out and held it closed. Gritting my teeth, I turned to face her, “you were so cool this morning, giving me time to talk to Lexa. What changed?”

“I let you be alone with her because she just suffered a major lose. I’m not a monster Clarke,” Vaughn replied softly. “I wasn’t going to go charging into your room and yank her out of your bed after what she saw yesterday. I may not like the girl, but I don’t hate her. She should be able to grieve however she needs to and if that means letting her lean on you a bit, then I’m okay with that for now.”

Blinking was the only response I could come up with. I hadn’t expected her to admit to anything. I’d expected her to shrug and say she was too tired to fight this morning or something.

“Well…” I cleared my throat, an action that made us chuckle. I met her grey eyes and offered a small smile, “thank you for that Vaughn. It meant a lot to me. And to her.”

“No worries,” She replied quietly.

“But Aden’s still going with us. I’m not leaving until I find him and my friends,” I said calmly. Before she could argue, I pulled the door open and entered the house.

I found Lexa in my bedroom, lounging on my bed. I climbed over her settled on my side, facing the wall, and pulled the blankets over my shoulder. Lexa rolled to her side and wrapped her arm around me.

“So what’d she want?” She asked quietly, her breath causing my hair to flutter gently.

“She wanted to know what I wanted to do.” I grabbed her hand and pulled her more tightly against my back, resting our hands above my heart.

“About what?”

“She said we could wait a few days or even a week to leave so we’d have time to try to find our friends and make sure they’re safe before we leave again.” After a moment I shifted onto my back, keeping our hands pressed to my chest, “I told her that was fine with me but we aren’t leaving Aden behind again.”

Lexa pushed a stray lock of hair behind my ear and smiled, “I knew you were going to say that. About Aden I mean.”

“She isn’t very happy with me. I told her he’s going with us and if she doesn’t like it then she and Rob should just go.”

“She’s going to be even more irritated when you tell her about the others,” Lexa laughed softly.

“The others?”

Rolling her eyes, Lexa nudged my nose with hers before saying, “You and I both know you have no intention of leaving our friends behind. It was one thing when we thought they were safe in the compound but now that we know the raiders are so close and so violent there’s no way you’re leaving them behind again.”

She was right. I hadn’t said anything to Vaughn about it because she was furious over one child. Telling her I was planning on bringing two more kids along would probably make her head explode. Octavia and Harper were definitely going to join us so the kids were part of that deal. Vaughn could like it or she could hate it, it was happening either way.

I nodded and smiled, “It’s not going to be a pretty fight. I’m sure I’ll win in the end but it really isn’t going to be pretty.”

“I have faith in you,” Lexa said proudly as she leaned over to kiss me.

A proper kiss too. It felt wonderful to forget the tragedy of yesterday for a moment and accept the comfort Lexa and her arms offered. Maybe a moment was too short but it was all I’d allow myself. I drew my head back and sighed. Sometimes, when a kiss is really all you needed to feel right, a sigh is necessary.

I ran my fingers through her hair, “We’ve got to go. I’m going to grab Raven and the three of us will see if we can find anybody from the compound. Meet me by the front door in a few minutes?”

She winked before she climbed out of my bed. After helping me to my feet she opened the door for me, “I’ll be down quicker than that. If going for a hike into town means I can get away from Vaughn and Rob for a while, I’m totally game!”

I found Raven in my brother’s room. Jacob had been a little scrawny seven-year-old the last time I’d seen him. His blond hair was combed into a faux-hawk and his blue eyes were always sparkling with mischief. I’d adored my brother from the day he was born. He was my little man. He’d be eight now, for the first time since he’d been able to walk and talk his December birthday had come and gone without him jumping on top of me to wake me up and proudly announcing I was his servant for the rest of the day.

“What are you doing?” I asked as I walked up behind my cousin.

Raven glanced at me, “I never thought I’d miss him so much.”

“Jacob?”

“Yeah. He was just a kid but, man, he was funny.” Raven sighed. Glancing around the room, she said, “And he was wise. Sometimes it was like talking to a 90-year-old man in a kid’s body.”

“You’re in here because you miss Jacob? You just want to hang out in his room?”

She shook her head, “Not just that. Your dad told me this weird story once. He said that when I figured it out, I’d find things that could help in an emergency. I thought it led to Jacob’s room,”

“But you haven’t found anything?”

“Nope. But being in here made me realize how much that kid made me laugh,” Raven reminisced. She stood then, “So, when do we head into town?”

“Town?” I stared at the toys Jacob had left on his bedroom floor. A toy soldier set, several toy cars, and a cape Octavia had made for her in one of her classes. He wore it everyday for a year.

“I assume that’s why you’re here. So you and me and Lexa could go look for our people.”

“Our people. Right,” I said. I couldn’t force my eyes away from the cape. Jacob never went anywhere without it. My family must have left more quickly than I’d realized.

“Clarke! Seriously!” Raven waved a hand in front of my face me.

“What?” I blinked a few times, “Right. We have to go. Lexa is waiting for us.”

****

I stood with Lexa by the front door while Raven ran back up to my bedroom to grab her pistol. I checked and re-checked my rifle and pistol. I made sure I had my knife in my pocket. Lexa followed my example, making sure she had what she needed and that everything was in working condition.

I heard Raven saying goodbye to Vaughn so I opened the front door. Lexa was stepping outside when Vaughn let out a low whistle. My eyebrows came together as I turned toward her. She pointed outside then held two fingers to her eyes before pointing out the window and holding up three fingers with her other hand. I whirled back toward the door and looked over Lexa’s shoulder. There were three men walking down the street. I didn’t think they’d seen Lexa. It appeared they believed they were alone in an abandoned neighborhood. I grabbed Lexa by the waistband of her jeans and pulled back hard. She turned, whether to ask me what I was doing or to yell at me for almost causing her to fall I’d never know. I pulled her back inside and carefully closed the door.

We ran upstairs to the guest room at the front of the house. Before we could do anything, Tank spotted the men and started to growl. Lexa wrestled him out of the room, locking him in my room for the time being there were no windows facing the street there so he wouldn’t be able to see the threat and start barking. After Lexa came back we cracked opened two windows that faced the street and strained to hear what the raiders were saying.

Once they were closer to the house, it wasn’t necessary to hold our breath anymore. They were talking loudly. They were practically shouting over one another, bragging about what they’d done to the people in the compound.

It took me a few seconds to realize I recognized two of the men from the bridge. Joey and Jake. Their group, the ones we called the raiders, had killed my people. The raider group must have been much larger than any of us had guessed. We thought it was a few dozen people, fifty or so at the most. Given what we’d seen at the compound and the group we’d run into at the bookstore, we’d been very wrong. No wonder they were desperate for supplies. After the winter, even the relatively calm one we’d just had, they must have been looking for better lodging than the RV store the giantess had mentioned. But why not move into the village? There were plenty of subdivisions just sitting empty now. Why not take over a few of them?

Like that day on the bridge, Joey was doing most of the boasting. He was talking about being by the Boss’s side while he talking to someone. He must have felt important, being included in the meeting. As they got closer to the house, I could see the scabbed over wound from Vaughn hitting him with her rifle butt on the bridge. It ran diagonally across his face, from just under his left eye, over his nose, and ending by the right corner of his mouth. It took me a few seconds to pull my attention from the wound and realize they were talking about Boss meeting with Lexa’s grandmother. Boss, who we’d just figured out was a former state senator from Michigan named Charles Pike, had been with Ona while his people killed ours. Either he killed Ona or one of his lackies had.

“What’d she think was going to happen? Did she think she could force us into a compromise?” Joey laughed.

“She wanted us to agree to the rules of the place. And build our own cabins or something,” Jake scoffed.

The third man, the one I hadn’t seen before, shrugged his shoulders, “That doesn’t seem all that unreasonable to me.”

Joey stopped walking and turned to stare at the man. They were right in front of our house. If he glanced up he’d see us in the window. The five of us scrambled to get out of view. Lexa and I dropped to the floor, Vaughn and Rob pressed their backs to the wall and Raven hid behind the curtain.

“Not unreasonable?” Joey echoed.

“We were asking them to take us in. What did you think they’d say?” The man shot back, “What? You thought they’d invite us to join their community and then offer up the cabins they built for their families? That they’d just let our people start eating their food and drinking their water without having to put in any work?”

“Isn’t that how you treat guests?” Joey shouted as he stepped into the man’s face.

I couldn’t help myself; I lifted my head enough that I could see what was happening down on the street.

“We weren’t asking to be guests. We were asking to become a part of their community,” The man yelled right back, shoving Joey away.

“We asked for shelter and food. Decent people would have offered it to us. They wouldn’t have insisted we build that shelter ourselves. Or refuse to give us food because we hadn’t worked to make it,” Jake replied.

“How do you know about any of this anyway? Weren’t you on a hunting trip? The one that not only came back empty-handed but lost two of our guns too?” The man sneered, “You weren’t standing right next to Boss when everything happened. That’s not how it all went down. Their leader wanted to make sure we’d be willing to put in the work before allowing us in. That’s just plain common sense. They have a town hall building they were going to put us up in until we could build our own cabins. Build them with their help and supplies I might add. Killing her and all those others doesn’t do any of us any good.”

Joey stalked back up to the man, only stopping when their noses must have been touching, “The old woman wanted us to turn over our weapons. She wanted us to enter their little compound unarmed. She insisted that Boss understand he wouldn’t be the leader anymore. That the people in her compound had chosen her to make the decisions and she was going to do right by them, so Boss would have to fall in line. How does that sound reasonable?”

The man threw his hands into the air, “You’re kidding me right? How would you feel if someone had come into the RV Park and insisted you give up your home? Or insisted you give them food and shelter without a promise of help and compromise? If they insisted their leader was going to be our leader just because they said so?”

Joey shook his head. Then he moved so quickly I didn’t even see his hand shift, Joey pointed a small revolver at the man’s head and pulled the trigger.

“No,” He said as he stared at the body sprawled out on then street, “You’re wrong.”

“No one argues with Boss!” Jake laughed.

Joey nodded and started walking again. Jake trailed after him, bouncing around like a puppy.

I slid the window closed before sitting with my back against the wall and staring up at the ceiling. Before I could think of anything to say, a way to diffuse the tension in the room, Lexa was up off her stomach and headed toward the door.

Raven cut her off, shaking her head, “It’s not worth it,”

“That loser laughed at the idea of them killing my grandmother!” Lexa replied. She grabbed Raven by her shoulders and tried to move her aside.

“They don’t know we’re here Lexa. We should probably keep it that way,” Rob said.

“You stay out of this!” Lexa snapped, “Go be a lapdog and leave me alone!”

“Lexa!” Vaughn gasped.

“It’s what he is!” She whirled around to face my sister, “Why are you acting shocked that the rest of us can see it too? You treat him like a faithful little puppy. But his loyalty is to you, not me. Those men were talking about killing _my_ grandmother! _My_ cousin! _My_ friends and family. I can’t just let them walk away!”

“You have to. They have more people. They could wipe us out with a few clips. We have to be smart about this,” Rob moved between Lexa and Vaughn, “And I am not a lapdog. I’m a hothead who doesn’t think things through. Vaughn helps temper that. Pray to whatever deity you believe in that you don’t ever see me get angry.”

“I’m sure they won’t miss those two. I’m going to make sure they don’t make it back to my Oak Openings,” Lexa turned to find Raven pressed against the door.

“No Lexa, you’re not going to do that,” Raven shook her head.

“Move,” Said Lexa.

Taking advantage of Lexa’s distraction Rob grabbed her around her waist, pinning her arms to her sides. Lexa immediately started fighting to get away. Raven stayed in front of her, trying to talk to her, to calm her down.

Finally I snapped out of my shock. I ran over and forced myself between Lexa and Raven. I placed my hands at the bend of Lexa’s neck, thumbs pressed to her collarbones, and said her name over and over again until she looked at me.

“I know why you want to go out there. I totally understand but Raven and Rob are right. It’s not the time,” I spoke as calmly as I could.

“They killed my family,” She grunted and strained against Rob’s grip.

“They weren’t at the compound Lexa. They were on the bridge,” I replied, “They were the ones who were dragging Vaughn away. Don’t you think she wants revenge for that?”

“Do you think I care?” Lexa growled, “They don’t get to go back to the home we helped build and claim it for themselves. What if they end up choosing your cabin? Sleeping in Aden’s bed?”

That was something I didn’t want to think about. I knew it was a definite possibility. I also knew charging out on the street and letting them know we were hiding out in the area was not a good plan. We didn’t know how many people were with them. The raiders always seemed to travel in groups of a dozen or more so chances were high there were more people scattered around somewhere.

I couldn’t think of anything else to do so I grabbed Lexa’s face in both my hands and forced her to look at me, “You’re the only one I have left Woods.”

Lexa stopped struggling. She took a deep breath through her nose, letting it out as a hiss through her lips, “You have your sister now. Isn’t that all you wanted?”

“Don’t be dumb,” I narrowed my eyes and clenched my jaw.

After a minute or two, Lexa calmed enough that Rob let her go. She stormed by us and went to my room, slamming the door behind her. I started to go after her but Raven stopped me, telling me to give her a little space.

Knowing she was right, that Lexa wasn’t going to listen to me when she was so mad, I followed the others downstairs. To keep my mind off my angry girlfriend I made plans with Vaughn and Rob. Raven disappeared again. Spinning my ring around my finger over and over again I talked things through with my sister. Rob wanted to go with us to search for survivors but Vaughn was worried that he’d scare people off since he wasn’t a local. Instead, since we’d grown up going to Oak Openings we knew the trails and woods better than most, she wanted to take Rob and go look around the woods surrounding the compound. It was intel like that she thought we might be able to use sometime soon.

After making sure we had all our bases covered I slowly made my way back up to my room. I knocked on the door. When I didn’t hear anything I said Lexa’s name. I heard shuffling, like she couldn’t decide if she wanted to open the door.

“Raven and I are leaving to go look around town,” I said quietly. When she didn’t respond I continued, “I just wanted to say goodbye,”

She opened the door. Tank burst out of the room with a bark. After quickly licking my hand he ran down the stairs.

I studied Lexa’s stoic face, “I know you wanted to go after those guys but letting them know where we are when we’re alone is a bad idea.”

“I know that,” She scowled.

“I’m just trying to keep us safe Woods,” I said.

“I know that too,” She snapped.

“So you’re mad at me because… why?”

“I’m not mad at you. I’m mad at them. I’m mad at the whole situation. You just happened to be there.”

“Oh. Right. You can’t take it out on them so you took it out on me.”

Lexa shrugged her shoulders and smiled sadly, “Evermore, right Clarke?”

“That’s funny. I don’t remember that including it being okay for you to get angry with me because I stopped you from doing something dumb or dangerous.”

“Now I’m mad at you,” Lexa faked an angry look. The real anger hadn’t left her eyes yet though, so I didn’t laugh.

“Whatever Woods,” I pressed a quick kiss to her scowling lips, “See you soon.”

I started to walk away but Lexa caught my hand and spun me into her arms. After kissing me soundly she held up her pinky finger, “Hurry up and go so you can get back.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As always, come and visit! I love getting messages from all of you! They really do help pass the time. Feel free to drop me a message, leave a prompt, ask a question, whatever!
> 
>  
> 
> imaginaryhistorianme.tumblr.com


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Raven and Clarke go looking for the survivors of the raid. They find some answers.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW: There are descriptions of violence and death in this chapter. I apologize if that is a trigger for you but it's part of the plot.

Raven and I made our way into the village as quickly as possible. Whitehouse was as eerily deserted as the last time I’d done a sweep through it. The look of abandonment was everywhere. There were houses with shattered windows and yards with clothes and bags thrown here and there. There weren’t any people though. From everything Raven and I could see, the people from the compound hadn’t returned to their homes after the raid.

We checked everywhere we could think of, including the elementary school and the old boy’s workhouse just outside of the village. There wasn’t any sign of anyone. The only changes from the norm were the bullet marks all over the village. There were even puddles of dried blood here and there. We were about to head back to the house when Raven snapped her fingers.

“The high school!” She said.

“What about it?” I asked.

“It’s secluded and already fenced off. It’s secure,” Raven pointed out like it was something I should have realized sooner.

I nodded, already following her train of thought, “If a big group of people was looking for somewhere safe to go, that’d be a good place to start. Especially if they were from the area. Octavia and Harper would have thought of that!”

“If we go out there today, we’re not making it home by dusk,” I said, my eyes lifting to the sky as I tried to figure out the time. It wasn’t something I’d ever been good at, no matter home many times Harper tried to teach me.

“I willing to risk it if you are,” Raven replied cutting into my thoughts. “The moon will be bright enough tonight to help us get home.”

We set off down the old rail line trail towards the school. The state had paved over the trail, making a biking trail that ran nearly the width of the state, so walking was a little easier. The added bonus was the trail ran by our house, so we would have no trouble getting home. We made good time, arriving at the school campus in an hour or so. At least that was how long it used to take me to walk there from home, before The Now.

We approached the campus slowly. Easily over a hundred acres, the property was made up of the middle school, the junior high school, and the high school. A twelve-foot high three-foot thick stonewall surrounded the entire campus. It kept kids safe while also looking nice which was a big deal to parents in our upper middle class school district.. There were several sets of iron gates in the wall, all of which looked to be intact. The campus was lined on three sides with a forest of oak and birch trees, the trails that ran though it were used for nature hikes in science class and as a form of pure torture for athletes.

Once we’d made sure we were alone, Raven and I approached the main gate in front of the junior high, which was the middle of the three buildings. It was a bit more recessed than the others so we’d have cover while we tried to get onto the campus. All it really took was Raven climbing the gate and opening it for me. The large metal latch was too heavy for us to reach through and lift through from the outside. The angle was too harsh to gain any kind of leverage.

We locked the gate behind us and headed into the campus. There were military and police tents set up everywhere. Other smaller tents with all kinds of acronyms scrawled on them were scattered here and there. The schools must have been used as an emergency shelter of some sort, at the beginning of the end.

We circled the high school first, looking for signs of recent activity but finding nothing. Raven walked onto the baseball diamond, where, as our high schools first ever female baseball pitcher, many of her favorite memories from school had been formed. I followed her; walking the bases and thinking about the last time I’d slid into second and the jerk shortstop that had deliberately fallen on top of me. After pulling herself up she’d reached out a hand, to look like she was trying to help me, and tossed a handful of dirt in my face. Ophelia was up to bat next. She hit a double into right center and slid into the girl’s legs, cleating her in the shin. I may have smiled at the blood.

As I circled the bases for a third time something caught my eye in the football stadium, located right next to the baseball diamond. I paused between first and second, staring at the field, trying to figure out exactly what I was seeing. Finally, confused and annoyed at my inability to understand, I ran into the outfield for a better look.

Once I had a clear view of the field I had to grab the fence to keep myself on my feet. Makeshift tombstones. They’d used the field as a cemetery. The field where I’d admired Luke Forrester’s playing style and where I’d actually had a conversation with Lexa for the first time. They’d destroyed it. I looked away from the field, the tears in my eyes making it hard to see. I was so glad Lexa wasn’t there to see the field. She’d hate to have that image in her head.

My eyes moved toward the student section. I remembered standing in the middle of a crowd of my classmates during one game our freshman year, it was snowing and I was freezing but Luke was lighting up the field so I couldn’t leave. I was in the middle of a heavy sort of crush on the guy and he was having a big night. He’d broken some record and I was dancing in the stands. I slipped on the bench and started to fall. Then I wasn’t falling anymore. Someone caught me. One arm tightly around my waist, the other wrapped around my shoulders. I gasped and glanced up to find Lexa Woods holding me tightly and staring at me, concern etched on her face.

That was the first time I could remember actually interacting with Lexa. She’d straightened herself up and slowly let me go. Then she helped me walk down the stairs and walked from one end of the field to the other with me while I recovered from my scare. She even bought me a hot chocolate. We talked about all kinds of things, first about me being too clumsy to be any good at sports, an accusation I resented, then video games and movies, which was where she’d learned what my favorites were, and finally a little about my sisters. I’d forgotten all about that night at the football field. Lexa broke up with Costia the next day. She’d told her she liked someone else and didn’t want to lead Costia on. I’d been clueless about her interest until after Costia had tried to kill me last year.

I turned away from the field, not wanting the image of countless tombstones to ruin that happy memory. Raven approached slowly and studied the field just for a moment before shaking her head and walked away. She didn’t want to remember it like that either.

We left the baseball field and headed toward the junior high. We walked around toward the main doors. As we rounded the corner to try opening the doors a screech echoed through the air.

Harper was sprinting toward us, yelling our names. She slammed into Raven, almost knocking her over. I smiled and threw my arms around her when she turned to me.

She was talking a million miles an hour. She and Octavia had set the fires. They hoped we’d see the smoke and come back to investigate. Harper had discovered the first of the raiders in the compound. She’d been walking with the kids when Charles and his entourage had approached them about meeting with Ona Woods, although they hadn’t known her name, they’d just wanted to talk to ‘the leader’ of the compound. She refused to answer his questions. She demanded to know how they’d gotten in the compound but one of the men had shoved her aside. Thad had been nearby and ran up to ask what was wrong.

“We knew something was wrong even before we heard the gunshots,” Harper took our hands and started pulling us toward the junior high doors, “Octavia and I had already locked up Tank and gotten the kids ready. I’m sorry Clarke, he would have drawn too much attention to us with the growling and the barking.”

“It’s okay Harper, he’s with Lexa at my house. He’s safe,” I assured her quickly.

“So you guys got out before all the shooting?” Raven asked.

Harper shook her head, “It all happened so fast. At first we were only walking toward the gate, like we were going out to collect berries or something. The girls even had their baskets so everything would look normal. Then the shooting started. Ava was hit before we even got close to the gate. Octavia tried to help her but the bullet hit her... There wasn’t anything we could do.”

I froze. Ava hadn’t made it out of the compound. What about the others?

“Elle?” Raven asked. Harper and I had been raising her best friend’s little sister along with Aden, Lexa and Raven helping out as much as they could of course. Harper and Elle had both lost their entire families to the Angolan Flu. Harper shook her head but wouldn’t go into detail about what happened.

“Harper,” My voice cracked. Knowing she had to be devastated, I squeezed her hands. After clearing my throat I asked softly, “What about Aden? And Octavia?”

“We made our way here. Octavia and Nyko went back out to find more survivors. They ran into a huge group and were leading them here when the raiders found them. Octavia and a couple of men stayed behind to hold off the raiders while Nyko led the survivors here,” Harper replied. She held my hand as I lowered myself to the ground, “Mr. Yantz saw Octavia go down in the middle of Lucas Street, near the village park. He said she was trying to run for cover when she got hit in the thigh. Mr. Yantz and a few others tried to get to her but the raiders shot at anything that moved. Eventually Octavia stopped yelling and the raiders were getting closer so the men had to leave.”

She said more but I wasn’t hearing any of it. My best friend was dead. The person I’d spent most of my life with, who I knew the best and who knew me better than anyone, was gone. I didn’t get a chance to say goodbye. I could only hope she knew how much I loved her.

Harper massaged my hand before squeezing tightly, making me look at her. She was talking but my ears refused to hear the words. There was a loud buzzing sort of sound. My vision narrowed, like I was about to pass out. I sank to the ground, my knees scraping against the concrete. Harper shook her head and kept talking. I focused on her lips, trying to read them. Finally my vision cleared and my hearing started to come back. My senses came slamming back when I heard Harper shout Aden’s name.

“What? What about Aden?” I demanded quickly.

“He’s fine Clarke. He’s inside,” Harper said. She started pulling me to my feet, “He has some scratches and a few bruises but that’s all. He’s okay.”

“He’s okay?” I repeated.

Harper nodded, pulling me toward the school again. Raven stayed beside me, letting me know she was there with a hand on my back. I was crying. The sobs shook my entire body. I couldn’t see where I was going. I had to blindly trust Harper to get me wherever she was taking me.

Then I heard it. The little voice I’d been so convinced only moments ago I’d never hear again.

“Clarkey?” He said.

“Aden!” I dropped Harper’s hand and held my arms open for him to jump into. I blinked away the tears as best I could, “You’re okay?”

“You’re crying Clarkey,” He said matter-of-factly as he wiped my tears away with his little hands, “Harper told you about the bad people who came to hurt us.”

I nodded, “She did.”

“They hurt Ava and Elle,” His little chin quivered, “Then they hurt Octavia too.”

“I know Aden. I know,” I felt the darkness creep in again. I fought it off, focusing on Aden, “I’m sorry.”

“It isn’t your fault Clarkey. Those bad people take what they want without caring who gets hurt,” He wiped away the tears again, “And now Octavia and Ava and Elle can’t be hurt anymore. We can be happy about that.”

I could only nod. Harper must have talked to him about what had happened. She must have explained it in her Harper-way.

Aden chattered on for a while before asking to go and play with his new friends. I agreed on the condition he stay where I could see him. He readily agreed and ran off into the gym.

As we followed him Harper filled us in on what exactly went down after the compound. After their escape they’d gone to Harper’s house to hide. The raiders turned up that night though, ransacking the houses in her neighborhood. They could hear them in her neighbor’s house. When they started trying to beat down the door of her house, they hid in the attic. The three of them stayed hidden until well after the sun had risen.

It had been Octavia’s idea to go to the school. There was a lot of room, fields for crops, there was a wall, and it was secluded. If you weren’t a local, you wouldn’t know it was there. They arrived first but soon others were appearing. They set up watches and small bands of people started to go out to look for other survivors. Octavia found Nyko and Tris in the old ice cream shop. Tris had been shot. Harper quickly assured me she was fine, the bullet passed through her shoulder so nothing vital had been hit.

It was on another one of those search-and-rescue trips that Octavia had been killed. She and Nyko found people hiding in a bike shop near the village park. The raiders stumbled upon them and opened fire without stopping to ask any questions. Octavia was killed while she was running for cover behind the statue of the Civil War solider that guards the park.

I didn’t know what to do. Losing Ophelia had hurt. There had been pain. I had cried and I had to run, literally, to deal with losing her. Losing Octavia caused a physical ache. My chest felt like there was an ever-tightening anaconda wrapped around it. At the same time I felt like I was going to explode at the slightest movement. I didn’t know how to cope with any of it.

Before I could recover from the story of how Octavia died, Harper mentioned my cousins Ana and Gia.

“Wait,” I wiped my face and straightened my back, “What about them? What happened?”

“Your aunt was shot several times. Nyko is taking care of her but she isn’t doing well,” Harper spoke quietly, “Nyko set up a clinic in the middle school since the cafeteria and gym are right next to each other. She’s over there.”

“But what about Ana and Gia?” I asked again.

“She said they were taken,” Raven said.

“Taken?” I repeated, “By who?”

“The raiders. They took all the young women and girls they could get their hands on. That’s how Tris got shot. They were trying to stop her from running,” Harper explained. “If Octavia hadn’t been holding her hand she’d have fallen and the raiders would have caught her.”

“Does Aunt Callie know?” I couldn’t wrap my brain around it all. Octavia gone, the girls killed, my cousins taken, my aunt shot. It felt like I’d stumbled into a movie or something.

Harper shook her head, “Whenever she wakes up and wants to see them we’ve been telling her they just stepped out or they’re sleeping or something. Nyko doesn’t want to upset her.”

I could only nod. I needed to talk to Vaughn. We had no choice but to change our plans now. We couldn’t leave Ana and Gia with the raiders.

Harper helped me get Aden ready for the walk back to the house. Before we left, Raven and I went to see Aunt Callie and Nyko. I let her know I was okay. She’d forgotten we’d left. When she asked about my cousins I lied and told her that I was taking care of them. Nyko sadly told me he didn’t think Callie would make it through the night. I told him to do what he could but not to waste resources. Callie wouldn’t want that. Raven gave him directions to the house in case he needed us.

We set off shortly after that.

There wasn’t much talking on the walk back through town. Raven and I scavenged what we could from houses we passed. We tried to keep Aden entertained. Harper and Raven tried to keep me entertained. They tried to keep me busy and moving so I didn’t think about Octavia. Every time I did, that darkness crept back in.

Finally, I couldn’t fight the darkness anymore. I approached Raven, sending Aden back to Harper so I could talk to my cousin.

“Raven,” I said quietly.

She swiped at her eyes and shook her head, “I’m fine Clarke.”

“Your girlfriend is dead. You can’t be fine.”

“It sucks. I didn’t think… I thought someday…” Raven’s voice was broken by a sob. She stopped walking and slowly sank to her knees on the trail. “Not fair.”

“It really isn’t fair. At all,” I crouched next to her. I hated thinking about Octavia being gone but at that moment, Raven needed my shoulder more than I needed to allow the darkness to envelope me.

“We finally got to be us in public. She was able to hold my hand and kiss me without people freaking out. You knew about us!” Raven sobbed. “You were happy for us right?”

“I was Raven, I was,” I nodded.

Raven threw herself into my arms and cried. Harper walked by quietly with Aden, the little boy’s eyes were filled with tears too. I held Raven while she cried. Like me, she was used to death now. She was used to it just being our little created family. Even though we’d left Octavia in Oak Openings, we’d both expected to see her again. Her death was something that would weigh on us. The ‘what ifs’ were always there.

“I loved her Clarke,” Raven sniffled.

“I know Raven,” I assured her. I rubbed her back and tried to soothe her as best I could, “she knew too. I know she did. I heard her tell you often enough.”

“I hate them. The raiders. Their leader. Those jerks who were bragging about killing Ona. I hate them all.”

I could only nod. I felt the same way. “We’ll figure all of this out Raven. And we’ll get justice for Octavia. I promise we will.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Before you get mad at me: HAVE FAITH!
> 
> I've got you. No worries!


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Clarke and Co. make it back to the house and fill the others in on what went down at the compound. They make a new plan.
> 
> Vaughn reveals a secret. (It's a big one...)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW: There's discussion of Ophelia and Octavia's deaths in this chapter.
> 
> Also, some weren't happy with what happened with Octavia. I don't like to give out spoilers but some of you were really upset. So I'd like to point your attention to the tags. 'Character death' is not there.
> 
> Hinty, hint, hint.
> 
> I got you! No worries!
> 
>  
> 
> Comments and kudos are welcomed and encouraged. I really like hearing from all of you, whether it is on here or on tumblr. Let's be friends! Or at least... you know... awkward people who occasionally chat.

Harper drifted back until she was keeping pace with me. I’m not sure if we were slowing down or Raven was speeding up but the gap between us grew over the next mile or so. She was talking to Aden about something, maybe Octavia, maybe Vaughn, I couldn’t be sure. The way Raven kept glancing back coupled with the tears in her eyes told me to keep away.

We continued down the path in silence. The great part about my friendship with Harper had always been that we didn’t have to talk all the time. We could just be together without speaking and it never felt awkward. When we were about a mile away from the house she took my hand in hers.

“It’s going to be okay Clarkey,” She said quietly.

“You can’t know that,” I shook my head, partly because she really couldn’t know that and partly because tears were threatening. The darkness was creeping in. I’d hoped I’d be able resist both until I saw Lexa. Knowing Harper was going to bring Octavia up changed that.

She pulled me to a stop and moved to stand in front of me so I had no choice but to face her. She grabbed my shoulders and held tight, “She wouldn’t want to you fall apart over this. You know that.”

“She was my best friend. I can’t… I don’t know how to process this,” I sniffled.

“You process it like you processed Ophelia’s death. You didn’t want her to die either but you handled it. You let her go.”

I shook my head, “That was different. She was sick. And she was suffering. I didn’t want… I couldn’t to force her to go on. I had time to prepare for it.”

“She may not have suffered or been sick but I think we can agree Octavia is in a better place now. You know she’s enjoying herself,” She smiled.

“She’s probably taking an endless hot shower and listening to Fall Out Boy on full blast,” I wiped my cheeks and laughed. “I know she’s not suffering and that she’ll never have to suffer again but it doesn’t mean I’m okay with her being gone. I didn’t think I’d never see her again when I left. She was supposed to be here when I came back.”

“We’ll never be okay with it. But we still have each other. We have to be thankful for that.”

“I guess she’s with Ophelia now,” I sniffled.

Like the great friend she’d been for the last year, Harper helped me clean myself up after my small bout of crying, pouring some water on the shirt she had tied around her waist and using it to wipe my face. After a few deep breaths we started walking again. She kept a hold on my hand but thankfully let the silence settle over us.

****

After our little chat finished, Harper and I caught up to Raven and Aden. The boy climbed from one of us to the other and chattered away about anything he could think of. Even with the energetic child using us as a moving jungle gym we managed to make good time. The moon was shining above us when we finally turned onto our street.

Lexa was in the front yard waiting. She was pacing, glancing from side-to-side like she didn’t know where we’d be coming from. Aden scrambled off my back and sprinted into her arms, tears streaming down his little face. I approached them slowly, partly so I could take in the scene and partly because I knew I was close to breaking down. I was smiling through my tears when Lexa held a hand out to me. When I took it she pulled me into her arms too, hugging Aden and me tightly.

Once the three of us calmed a bit, at least enough for Lexa to let us go, we made our way into the house. Sitting around the living room Harper filled Lexa in on the attack. Aden covered his ears and hummed through most of it. Vaughn and Rob came in at the end but my sister wasted no time in insisting Harper describe everything she’d seen and heard. Aden clapped his hands over his ears again. I took him up to Jacob’s room so he didn’t have to hum through it all again. When I got back to the living room Harper was telling Vaughn about our cousins being taken by the raiders. I excused myself and stood on the back porch until Raven came to get me.

Everyone was talking over each other in the living room. Harper and Raven insisted we’d be safer at the school, that the security measures that had been put in place before the end could be enhanced and help keep everyone safe. Vaughn and Rob were quick to point out the safety measures we’d used at the compound had done almost nothing to protect them. Then they suggested we leave at first light. They could only see safety in heading to Wyoming. Lexa thought we should stay in our house and fortify our small neighborhood. She didn’t want to leave until we knew what happened with the rest of our people.

“What about Ana and Gia?” When it became clear nobody heard me mention our cousins I got angry. We had something we needed to focus on, something we could formulate a plan around, and everybody was worried about having their own way.

“Hey!” I yelled. No one even looked at me. I slammed my hand down on the end table next to Vaughn and shouted, “They were taken!”

That seemed to capture Vaughn’s attention, “Who was taken?”

“Ana and Gia. And a number other girls,” Harper answered. She was annoyed. She wasn’t used to people not fully listening to whatever she said.

“By who?” Vaughn asked.

“Those people. The raiders. They took all the young women they could find during the attack,” Raven explained.

My sister stood and took my hand. She pulled me up the stairs. She kept pulling until we were in my room. Once the door was closed behind us Vaughn started pacing. I stood next to my bed and watched her.

“What do we do?” I asked.

Even if I’d never admit it to Vaughn, I was ecstatic at having someone to turn to when it was time to come up with a plan. Not that the adults in the compound hadn’t tried, they just hadn’t really been out in the drastically changed world so they weren’t realistic when plans were made. It usually fell to the dozen or so teenagers who were able to make it home from our class trip. It got a little tiring, all the arguing with the adults who wanted to believe they could still control the young lives inside the compound.

Vaughn was silent for a long time. Finally she sighed, “We get them back.”

“How?” I questioned.

Without breaking her stride she looked at me and smiled, “we take them.”

“We don’t know where they are. Or how many raiders are with them.”

“So we do some recon,” Vaughn shrugged.

I shook my head, “I don’t know how to recon.”

That got Vaughn to stop pacing. She turned to face me, her lips pulled into a smile I’d never seen before, “I guess it’s lucky for us that I do.”

Before I could ask what she was planning there was a knock at the door. Vaughn marched to it and opened it. Surprisingly, she left without another word.

Lexa stepped into the room and closed the door. She crossed to my bed and sat down, “I’m guessing I interrupted?”

“Not really. You only interrupted Vaughn being cryptic and weird.”

“She’s cryptic and weird every time she talks,” Lexa caught my hand pulling me until I was seated next to her, “So what’s the plan?”

I leaned into her, dropping my head onto her shoulder, “Plan for what?”

“Don’t be dumb,” She wrapped her arm around my waist and squeezed, “How are we going to get your cousins back? We can’t leave them with those people.”

“Apparently step one is recon.”

“Okay. Then what?”

“No idea. She was being cryptic remember?” I tilted my head back to look at her.

Lexa sighed, “You’re so much work Griffin.”

“You picked me Woods,” I pressed a quick kiss to her cheek.

She winked, “I’d pick you again any day.”

****

Finding Vaughn shouldn’t have been as difficult as what it was that night. I knew she wouldn’t leave the house but the house was huge and there were a lot of rooms. If she didn’t want to be found, I wouldn’t find her. It took over an hour of searching before I finally checked the old media room. I’d actually convinced myself that my father had made good on his jokes to build tunnels and passages throughout the house and that Vaughn had found them. Instead, I found her stretched out on the pool table, tapping a rhythm out on her stomach with her fingertips.

“Vaughn?” I said as quietly as I could, not sure if she’d heard me enter the room.

“Clarke?” She responded.

“What are you doing?”

She scoffed a little, “thinking. And planning. Being me I suppose.”

I waited a beat, hoping she’d say more, give me more to go on than that. Nothing came. Not a single laugh or throat clearing. Nothing.

“Did you need something?” She asked after a few minutes of silence.

“Why are you being so insistent?” I answered her question with one of my own. “About Wyoming and the family I mean. I know we need to get to them. But Vaughn, you were willing to overlook the fact that our cousins were taken. Two of the only relatives we know for certain are alive.”

She turned her head to meet my eye. She considered me for a long moment before she spoke. “Why don’t you care enough about Mom and Dad and our sister and brother to want to get to them? Why aren’t you overwhelmed with the need to get Bubbe and Dedko?”

“That’s not fair!” I snapped.

It really wasn’t. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to find our family. I did. But after hearing about Octavia and seeing Aunt Callie, I just couldn’t leave Ana and Gia and who knew who else to the mercy of Charles Pike. I wouldn’t be able to live with myself.

“We have to go!” Vaughn roared as she sat up.

“Why?” I questioned just as loudly.

Swinging her legs over the side of the pool table, Vaughn jumped down and stalked up to me. She used the several inches of height she had over me to glare down her nose. “They have my son with them!”

“They have…” My jaw dropped. “What?!”

I really hadn’t had any clue into what her desperation was all about. I thought it was just a need to see our parents and siblings. Or… I don’t know. Literally anything other than what she’d just shouted.

Vaughn paused, her eyes round like she hadn’t meant to tell me that. She looked like she wanted to flee. Then she straightened even more and cleared her throat again, “Gustus, my son. He’s with the family.”

“You have a son?”

“Named Gustus,” she nodded.

A new voice filled the room as Lexa entered, “what about Gus?”

“You too?” I turned to her.

“Well I heard her yelling about my little brother so – ” Lexa replied slowly.

“Not your brother,” Vaughn cut in. “Your nephew.”

To say the silence that filled the room was tense and heavy would have been an understatement. Lexa and I gaped at Vaughn. I was waiting for her to tell us she was joking. There was no way my sister had a kid and I didn’t know.

“Say again?” Lexa asked.

“Gustus is your nephew, not your brother,” Vaughn repeated.

Lexa glanced between my sister and me. I shrugged and shook my head. I hadn’t a clue what was going on.

“Can you explain?” She requested.

Vaughn nodded slowly, turning to meet my eyes. “You remember me telling you about Ilian? About how he slept his way through my group of friends?”

“Yes?” I replied.

“Well…” She waved a hand through the air and stared at me, waiting.

“So you and Ilian Woods have a son?” I asked.

“Yes,” Vaughn nodded.

“Ilian Woods. Lexa’s brother?” I repeated, unable to believe it.

“Do you know any other Ilian Woods?” Vaughn snapped.

Lexa’s hand found mine, our fingers laced together. She waited a beat before asking, “how did we not know?”

“I didn’t show until my the last month or so. That summer I went to visit Mom’s cousin in New York. That’s where I had Gustus,” Vaughn explained. She glanced at Lexa before looking back at me, “you were young so you only thought I was going to the city. You were so mad at me, wouldn’t talk to me for a week after I came back.”

“I thought you were going to see Spamalot without me!” I rolled my eyes.

“Mom and Dad went on a trip and came back with Gustus,” Lexa whispered. “I never asked where he came from. I didn’t care. I’d always wanted a younger brother. No wonder Ilian was all about him.”

That seemed to get Vaughn’s attention. Her head snapped to Lexa, “what?”

“After Gustus came home, all Ilian wanted to do was hang out with him. I think he changed more of his diapers than Mom and Dad,” Lexa said. She shook her head, “I just thought he was being helpful. I didn’t know it was because he was taking care of his son. It all makes sense now.”

“What makes sense?” I asked.

“Ilian completely changed after Gustus came along. He stopped going to parties, he started studying like crazy, joined the ROTC, he volunteered to take Gustus everywhere he went,” Lexa rattled off examples.

Vaughn blinked at that. It was like she couldn’t believe what she was hearing. “He never… I thought he just kept being Ilian.”

“He didn’t sleep with all of your friends by the way. He didn’t sleep with any of them. If he had, your friends suck and you shouldn’t put all the blame on him,” Lexa said.

“How do you know?” Vaughn snapped.

“I heard him talking to Thad about you once. You scared the crap out of Ilian, but I think it was in a good way. I don’t know why your friends would let you think they’d all slept with him but he stopped… you know…” Lexa said quietly. The emotions playing over Vaughn’s face seemed to have her a little perplexed. “He didn’t hook up so much after you I think. I don’t remember him having a bunch of different girls around now that I think about it. From what had to have been months before Gustus came until he left for college. Even when he was in college.”

“He always had girls around him,” Vaughn replied.

“Yeah, hanging on him, not the other way around. I think my brother was a bit hung up on you,” Lexa smiled softly, she could see Vaughn’s confusion just as much as I could.

Shaking her head, Vaughn shuddered out a breath, “it doesn’t matter. Right now I need to concentrate on getting to Wyoming. I need to get to Gustus.”

“You think Mom meant my siblings are with your family?” Lexa asked.

“I’m sure of it,” Vaughn nodded.

“Well then, as soon as we get Ana and Gia from Pike and his people we’re heading to Wyoming,” Lexa replied. She turned and pressed a kiss to the side of my head. Then she headed toward the door, “I hope that your angst over my brother isn’t the only thing that caused you to dislike me. I don’t think that’s fair.”

“Lexa – ” Vaughn started to speak.

She shook her head, “how about we stick to one heavy topic a day? We’ll come back to that in the next day or two.”

Then I was alone with my sister. My sister who was a mother. I had a nephew I’d never met. I waited a moment before speaking, “are you okay?”

“I thought Ilian just used me and then moved on,” Vaughn said absentmindedly.

“Does it matter?”

“I think it does. He never seemed like he wanted to keep Gustus. It was his parents’ idea for them to raise him. They didn’t even adopt him,” Vaughn explained. “Ilian had been adamant that he and I be listed as his parents. Mr. and Mrs. Woods were just his legal guardians.”

“I think you have a lot to think about,” I said. I pulled her into a hug, resting my head on her shoulder. “I’m sorry you don’t know what’s happened with Gustus. I’ll totally understand if you and Rob need to leave us here. We’ll follow as soon as possible.”

“I’m not leaving you,” she shook her head even as her arms wrapped around me.

“But Gustus…” I said.

Shaking her head again Vaughn said, “I need to keep the family I know is safe with me. I hope Gustus and the others are okay but I know you are. I’m trying to take this one step at a time.”

“Right,” I nodded and stepped back. “So first step, recon. Second step, plan. Third step, get the girls. Last step, get you to your son.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You know the drill friends! Come and see me! I love getting those notifications from you all! Questions, comments, and prompts are all welcome!
> 
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> imaginaryhistorianme.tumblr.com


	11. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Clarke and Rob go on a little adventure. We get to see a bit more of who Rob is.
> 
> Clarke finds an old friend unexpectedly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW: There's violence at the end of chapter. When Isaac reappears, bad things happen.

Recon was apparently Vaughn’s way of saying ‘sitting in trees and staring at people’ and she took it very seriously. This extreme stalker-like behavior was something she’d been trained to do by the Marines. I spent countless hours thirty or more feet in tree staring into the compound I’d helped build. Vaughn was usually in a tree nearby and would occasionally attempt to communicate with me through hand signals. No matter how many times she explained those signs to me, I never knew what she was trying to tell me. My automatic reaction to her flailing was always an urge to steal third base.

It didn’t help that it became another way for Vaughn to keep me away from Lexa. After her revelation about Gustus, she’d stopped sighing every two seconds when I was with Lexa but she still hadn’t warmed up to her all that much. Vaughn almost always had me go with her to climb trees and stare at people. If not, Rob and Lexa were in the trees. Since she was wary of being alone with Rob, Lexa tried to stay back to help fortify the neighborhood as much as possible.

When Vaughn wasn’t flailing out those signals she knew I didn’t understand she was studying the compound or writing furiously in a little notebook she’d taken to carrying with her everywhere. At night she and Rob would go over the notes in my dad’s office, her makeshift war room. Each morning after breakfast they would force the rest of us into the office and talk over plans. She even tried to get us to call those meetings ‘briefings’ but Raven made too many underwear jokes for that to stick.

My only respite from Vaughn and her recon missions and all the plans came at meal times when we’d all eat as a family, laughing and joking. Sometimes Raven and I would try to teach everyone a Yiddish or Slovak word. Harper picked up on Yiddish quickly. She would even mess with Vaughn by joining Raven and me when we played our little game. Once everyone finished eating Aden would grab Tank and disappear into Jacob’s room while we discussed the compound and Pike.

On the fifth morning after we’d launched our recon mission Vaughn pulled out a poster board she’d scavenged from a nearby store. She asked those of us who had lived in the compound to draw out a map, concentrating on any weaknesses we knew about. Once we had our assignment she and Rob set off for Oak Opening for the daily recon.

The next morning after proudly showing off the mock-up of the compound she’d built, she announced they’d spotted the leader. He marched around the compound wearing an old army helmet someone had painted six stars on. Rob thought he looked like a child playing dress up.

It was a few days later; nearly two weeks after the raid on the compound, Vaughn announced we were ready for the next step.

“We’ll need your doctor friend for this part,” Rob explained.

“Do you think you can convince him to help?” Vaughn asked.

I nodded, “I have no doubt he’ll want to help.”

“He knows Tris could have been taken too. He’ll want to make sure she’s safe from those people,” Lexa added.

“Good,” Vaughn sighed, like she’d been worried about gaining Nyko’s cooperation, “I sent Harper and Raven to get him. They left at sunrise. I just wanted to make sure you’d have my back.”

****

A few hours later Vaughn had lost all patience. She paced around the war room, muttering and sighing up a storm.

“What do you need me to do?” Rob asked quietly from his seat on the desk.

“I need something to happen!” Vaughn replied.

“Okay,” he nodded. He waited a second or two, watching Vaughn’s movements all the while, before standing and going to her. He blocked her path, his hands coming up to cup her cheeks and tilting her head back to look at him. “What do you need me to do?”

“Go find them? Harper and Raven I mean,” Vaughn’s voice was quiet. She held his wrist in her grip, “I just need to be productive and I can’t do that if the doctor isn’t here.”

He smiled softly, a lot softer than a man that large and muscular had any right to smile, and brushed his lips against her forehead. He pulled back a little, his hands still holding her face, and studied her. I could see his deep brown eyes dancing between Vaughn’s, trying to read her as best he could.

“I can do that. I’ll take Little Griffin with me too. So the locals will know I’m not so scary,” He said, his voice was calm. It seemed to help ease the tension from Vaughn’s shoulders.

“Please hurry,” She sighed before she let her head fall to his shoulder. “I just need to be doing something.”

With one last nod, Rob moved her away from his body. He offered a small smile and turned to face me. I think they’d both forgotten I was in the room with them because he looked pretty shocked when he saw me standing there, watching them.

“Can you grab you stuff? Just enough for a trip to the school,” he asked, his posture stiffening a bit.

“Yeah,” I nodded and winked at him. The man was scary and quiet but he’d just been a big old teddy bear for my sister. I wasn’t about to not tease him for I’d seen. “Give me five minutes and I’m all yours.”

“Clarke, stop grinning like that,” Vaughn rolled her eyes.

I shrugged as I headed the door. I turned back to see Rob reaching for her again. I couldn’t stop myself. I cleared my throat.

“Clarke!” Vaughn growled.

“Not a fan of your own techniques?” I laughed.

I was out the door before either of them could respond. I didn’t know much about Rob. I knew he was Hawaiian. I knew he met Vaughn while they were training together in South Carolina. I knew they’d been deployed together. Other than that, I didn’t know anything. I just had guesses. I thought about all of that while I headed up to my bedroom to grab my gear.

“Going somewhere?” Lexa asked as soon as I entered the room.

“Rob and I are going to the school to find Harper and Raven. They should have been back by now,” I explained.

She blanched slightly at that, “you’re leaving me here with Vaughn?”

“You’ll be fine. She hasn’t been as bad since she told us about…”

“How she and my brother have a kid together?” Lexa finished my thought when I drifted off.

I could only nod. I pulled my AR-15 out of its case and checked it over. I knew it was in perfect condition, I’d just stripped it down and cleaned it the day before, but it gave me something to do while I organized my thoughts.

“Where’d you go?” Lexa wrapped her arms around me from behind, her chin resting on my shoulder as she nuzzled my neck.

Tipping my head to the side, allowing her the room to press a few kisses to the exposed skin she’d just nuzzled, I sighed. I was in Wyoming with my family. I was thinking about Vaughn and Gustus, my nephew I’d only seen a few times at sporting events or around town, and Ilian Woods. I was thinking about my parents, knowing they’d gone out of their way to make sure Gustus and Ilian and Lincoln and Caoimhe and Searc were with them before they fled Whitehouse. I had so many questions about my parents and Gustus that only Vaughn could answer but I didn’t know how to ask.

How had they reacted when she told them she was pregnant? Did they want Vaughn to put him up for adoption? Did they think she should keep him? Then I considered Bennet. She was a couple of years older than me. Had she known about Gustus?

“I just have questions. About Gustus.”

“Me too,” She pressed a kiss to my jaw.

“Do you think…” I didn’t want to finish the question but it had been plaguing me since Vaughn told us. “Do you think Vaughn wants to be with Ilian?”

“You mean instead of Rob?” Lexa asked. When I nodded, she sighed and snuggled into my neck some more, “Like you think Rob is just a place holder?”

“She’s never actually called him her boyfriend. And she… they aren’t…” I sighed. Turning slowly, I wrapped my arms around Lexa’s neck. “Are they what we think they are? Or was that just us assuming?”

“I don’t know Griffin,” Lexa shook her head. She tightened her arms minutely. “I think Vaughn has a lot on her plate and Rob is helping her. As for what else he’s doing when we aren’t around, or what they’re doing. I don’t think I want to know.”

A knock on the door interrupted my next thought. I gave Lexa one quick kiss, stepping away to finish gearing up, when she pulled me back for a longer kiss. Of course she winked when I pulled away, a little bit more than a little dazed.

“Clarke?” Rob’s voice came through the door.

“I’m almost ready! You can come in,” I called back.

“You’re lucky I’m not Vaughn,” Rob smiled when he entered the room. “You two aren’t so subtle about the kissing.”

“Do you really want to go there?” I quirked a brow.

Shrugging his massive shoulders, “I do what I want. Are you ready?”

Taking the knife and ammo belt Lexa held out for me, I nodded. I secured the belt to my waist and slipped the knife into my back pocket. After one more kiss from Lexa, Rob and I headed out of the house and toward the village.

We took the most direct way to the school, the old rail line. We walked in silence, Rob about ten feet in front of me. Passing through the village square, I called out for Rob to stop before I head toward the Civil War soldier statue.

“What’re you doing?” He asked as he came up behind me.

“Octavia died near here,” I answered quietly. My eyes searched the nearby street. I didn’t know what I was looking for, but my heart pleaded with my mind for just a few minutes.

“Where?”

“Harper said she was shot on that street,” I pointed in the general direction of Lucas Street. I moved that way slowly, my eyes on the ground, still searching. “Mr. Yantz said she fell in the middle of the street, trying to get to the statue for cover.”

Rob followed closely, his footsteps nearly silent on the pavement. His voice was a lot closer than I thought it’d be when he asked, “What are you hoping to find Clarke?”

“I don’t know. When Raven and I went through here that day… looking for Harper and Octavia and the kids I mean, we saw the signs of a firefight. There were bullets and casings and blood everywhere.”

“Stop,” A large hand landed on my shoulder, pulling me to halt. “You’re trying to find her blood? That isn’t going to help. It isn’t going to show you anything about how she died. It’s just going to hurt you.”

“But if I could – ”

“No, it won’t help.”

I turned to glare at the man, “You don’t know what will help me. You don’t know me.”

“I know more than you think. Maybe I haven’t known you for long but I have known Vaughn for a few years. She doesn’t stop talking about how proud she is of her kid sisters. Especially you. Hell, I didn’t even know Jacob existed until last year. She never mentioned him. I get why, after she told me about…” Rob’s voice drifted off. His eyes glanced around, like he was worried someone had overheard him. “Listen, I know. You like sports. You like competition. You think it’s funny to harass Vaughn as often as you can. I know all about how you refused to talk to her for the last two days she was home before leaving for basic. I don’t know why, but that’s just because she doesn’t either. You like blue, you hate red. You’re a smart kid. She said you were shooting for a sports scholarship but that you were probably just as likely to get an academic one with your grades.”

“Rob,” I tried to cut him off. My life would be easier if I could just see him as Vaughn’s goon. If he kept talking, I’d actually end up liking the guy.

“No,” he shook his head, his other hand came up to rest on my other shoulder. “You and your sister are too alike. You love like mad but then don’t know how to tell each other. She does love you Kalaka.”

“Kalaka?”

Rob shrugged, “means Clarke in Hawaiian. I miss Hawai’i. It was either Kalaka or Kekoa.”

“Which means?”

“Warrior,” he said offhandedly. Dropping his hands from my shoulders he met my eyes again. “Don’t think you can distract me. I’ll give you a lesson in Hawaiian some other time. For now, you need to head back to the path. Looking for the place where Octavia fell won’t help.”

“How do you know?” I demanded. I hated that his words rang so true.

“Vaughn did the same thing during our first tour. She’d go back to where we’d lost someone. She’d stare at the blood in the sand for hours if we let her,” Rob started toward the trail, talking to me over his shoulder. His voice was just loud enough to hear, but I knew if I wanted to know more I’d have to follow him.

So I did.

“How did you get her to stop?” I asked as we stepped on the trail again.

“I found a picture of Gustus,” Rob replied, his eyes scanning the trees.

“So you know?”

He arched a brow and shot a disbelieving look at me, “of course I know. Vaughn told me the whole story just before we came home from that tour. I know all about Ilian Woods and what Vaughn thinks happened. I’ve seen more pictures of Gustus and more of his drawings than I have of my own nephew’s back home.”

“And you don’t care?”

“Why would I?”

I had more questions, poised on the tip of my tongue, ready for a rapid-fire session with the Hawaiian giant next to me. Unfortunately, three raiders appearing on the path in front of us cut our heart-to-heart short.

“Well, well, well,” The first man smiled. “What do we have here Monty?”

The second raider stepped up next to his companion and I gasped. I knew him! Monty Green had been on the trip with me to D.C. last year.

“Just some strays I think,” Monty said nonchalantly. He didn’t fool me though, his eyes were huge and his mouth stretched into a smile. He was just as shocked to see me.

The third raider moved forward and spoke to the first, “I don’t know Isaac. I think they look like some of the park people to me.”

Isaac smiled, “that’s what I was thinking Danny. Why are you lying Monty?”

“Why do you two have to start with everyone we come across?” Monty shot back. He glanced at me and I could see the fear in his eyes. “I’ve been with you two for maybe two hours and you’ve… isn’t six people enough for you?”

“Why don’t you try harder to help us when we come across trouble?” Danny asked. “Those two have attacked us.”

“That’s what we’ll tell Boss anyway,” Isaac laughed before pulling a pistol from his waistband.

Rob moved in front of me, just enough that he could stop the men from me. He held his rifle tightly as he spoke, “we’re just out taking a look around. We don’t want any trouble.”

“Well…” Isaac scratched at his chin as he drew out the word. “You have trouble. From where I’m standing, you’re between me and the best prime I’ve ever seen. You’re going to need to move.”

“That isn’t happening,” Rob spoke through gritted teeth.

Danny moved then, started to level a gun off on Rob’s chest. Without thinking, I pulled the knife from my back and flicked it open before throwing it straight into the man’s chest. It hit exactly where I was aiming, the middle of his sternum. He was dead before he hit the ground.

With wide eyes, Isaac looked back at me. He shouted, “Why would you do that?”

“He was going to shoot my friend,” I replied as evenly as I could given how the adrenaline was already pumping hard. I turned to Monty then, “are you okay?”

“No one cares about this leech!” Isaac waved his gun at Monty. “Why’d you kill Danny?”

“Lower your gun!” Rob ordered, his rifle now pressed to his shoulder. “Now, or I’ll help you join Danny.”

With a quick hand Monty snatched Isaac’s gun, pulling the clip and emptying the chamber. He took a few steps toward me, holding out the secured weapon.

“I don’t know what he thought he was going to do. He only had a few rounds and he’s a terrible shot,” Monty said as he handed the gun to me.

“You freaking traitor! Boss is going to kill you!” Isaac roared. He stalked toward Monty, his fists balled and his face red. “You were supposed to lead us to your group. Where are they?”

“Can’t be a traitor if I’m not one of your people,” Monty muttered.

Rob side-stepped to block his path. “Put your hands up. Don’t move.”

I moved around Monty and searched Isaac. I found a wicked knife, similar to the one I’d been carrying for the last year, and another small gun with no ammunition. I shook my head, letting Rob know he didn’t have anything else on him, before turning to Danny’s body and pulling my knife from his chest.

“You’re going to go back to Boss and tell him you lost the boy. You’re not going to come anywhere near me or my friends again. Do you understand?” Rob asked, his voice dangerously low. So low that it lost the fun Hawaiian accent he usually had when he spoke.

“You can’t – ” Isaac started to argue.

“I’d listen to the man Isaac,” Monty cut him off. “He doesn’t look like he’s joking. And I know that look on Clarke’s face. She’s definitely not going to be friendly if she sees you again.”

After a moment, for him to think through his options I think, Isaac turned and walked off the path. Monty and Rob moved Danny’s body to the side of the path before we started walking again.

“Clarke Griffin, I never thought I’d see you again!” Monty smiled before enveloping me in a tight hug.

“Are you sure we should take him with us?” Rob asked at the same time.

“Yes. He’s fine Rob,” I replied.

Rob glared at my former classmate, “he was with the raiders.”

“They found me while I was looking for supplies. I figured out their goal pretty quick so I promised them some girls. I was supposed to take them to my camp,” Monty explained. “I was trying to figure a way out when you two found us.”

“When did you get back?” I asked.

“Not too long ago. We got caught up in a quarantine zone in Alexandria. They only let us go six months ago or so,” Monty answered. “What about your group?”

“Harper McIntyre, Raven Reyes, Lexa Woods, and Octavia Blake all made it home with me. Ophelia Blake, Costia Oakley, and Luke Forrester died on the trip home,” I said quickly. “Octavia died the day the raiders took Oak Openings from us though. What about you?”

“Maya Vie, Jasper Jordan, and Zoe Monroe made it home with me. Finn Collins, Clark Abernathy, Roma Thatcher, Katie Fox, and Charlotte Sawyer died in the QZ or on the way home,” Monty said. He told us all about his time quarantine zone, the QI as he called it. I didn’t need the details when he said Katie, Charlotte, Don, and Clark had all caught the Angolan Flu. The others were killed by other people, in the case of Finn, or by drinking bad water, in the case of Don and Roma.

“So where are the others then?” Rob asked.

“At the school. We didn’t know anyone else was there but Maya suggested we go there because of the fences and stuff. We were pretty surprised when there were people there already. We got here a few days ago, we’ve been settling in since then,” Monty answered. He glanced over his shoulder then, freezing midstride as his eyes caught something. “He’s back.”

Rob rounded on the spot, immediately moving toward Isaac. The man was holding a baseball bat with nails punched through it. Rob stopped a few feet from him. “I thought I told you to leave?”

“I want the prime. You can keep the boy,” Isaac replied like it was the most normal thing he’d ever said.

“Not going to happen,” Rob shook his head. He lifted his gun, undoing the strap and handing it off to Monty. “You’re not going anywhere near Clarke. Now is your chance to leave.”

Instead of responding, Isaac swung the bat. Rob dodged the blow easily, moving around Isaac in a circle while the man kept trying to catch him with the bat. Rob was trying to tire him out, to get him to leave us alone. Isaac seemed to have endless energy. I thought the strange dance was going to last until nightfall. Then the bat caught me n my arm, the nail slicing deep into my bicep.

The next thing I knew, Rob was on top of Isaac with fist flying. Monty had his back to the men wrestling on the ground, tearing the bottom of his t-shirt to apply pressure to the deep cut on my arm. The gash looked like it was seven inches or so long. Nyko would definitely need to check it when we got to the school.

“Rob!” I screamed. Isaac wasn’t moving anymore. Rob’s fists didn’t stop. I pulled away from Monty, approaching Rob carefully. “Rob?”

More fists flew. Isaac groaned once more, then nothing came from him.

“Rob Kahu!” I caught one of his arms with both of mine and held on. Even with all the weight training I’d done for softball and soccer, and with all the physical activity I’d taken part in while building Oak Openings, the momentum of his arm lifted me from my feet. I didn’t let go though. I ended up dangling from that massive arm, glaring up at Rob.

“Clarke?” He blinked. Then he looked behind me at the bloody mess that used to be Isaac the raider.

Standing, Rob lifted me to feet and turned away. He took the water Monty held out and rinsed off his hands. With a glance over his shoulder, his eyes met mine.

“Is he?” He asked, his voice back to the quiet Hawaiian tone I was used to.

“Dead?” I finished his thought before bending down and feeling for a pulse. I couldn’t find one. “Yeah.”

Crinkling the water bottle in his fist, Rob let out a roar. After a few pants, he turned to Monty and took his gun, strapping it across his torso again. Without another word, he started walking down the trail again.

“Was that… has he…” Monty whispered as we followed.

“No, he’s never done that before. At least not in front of me,” I answered. “He warned me once that I wouldn’t like to see him angry. I agree. I didn’t like that.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Come see me! Leave a comment, send a message, give me a prompt! Let's be friends!
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	12. Chapter 12

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Clarke and Lexa head to Oak Openings with Nyko to try to get the girls back. Things do not go according to plan.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW: there's a bit of violence in this chapter. Nothing too graphic. Someone does get a little bit shot. Not Clexa or their friends though. Just... someone.

We found Raven and Harper with Nyko just outside the school. After a quick explanation for the delay, the discovery of Tyler’s group, Raven and Harper insisted we head home. After my arm was stitched up, and Nyko gave me a tetanus shot ‘just in case’, we left. Our former classmates joined us. They quickly formed a plan to set up one of the other houses in the neighborhood as their own.

We walked back into the house just before the sun set that evening. I shook my head at the plate of food Lexa offered me, instead picking Aden up and heading to my room. Lexa followed, bringing some food with her. We sat quietly in my bed, slowly eating the fruit and jerky Lexa had scrounged up, not talking. Once Aden drifted off Lexa took him to Jacob’s room for the night, before returning to me. I sobbed into her chest for a long while before calming enough to tell her about what had occurred on the trail that afternoon.

Vaughn didn’t have nearly as much sympathy. She barged into my room so she could check out the dozen or so stitches in my arm. Then she ordered us down to the war room for mission planning.

****

As the sun rose the next morning, our little delegation was heading toward Oak Openings. Nyko was in the lead, looking every bit the leader we needed him to be, while Lexa and I flanked him. The others were behind us. A few other adults from the school Nyko had sent for once we’d settled all the plans. Vaughn, Rob, and Raven were in the trees surrounding the compound, each with a clear view of the Ona’s cabin, which Pike seemed to have claimed for himself.

We approached the gates cautiously. Every step was full of anxiousness. We didn’t know how the raiders would react to our unannounced visit. I knew they probably wouldn’t be overly happy with how heavily armed we were.

Our hesitation wasn’t needed though. The raiders hadn’t even bothered to post any guards. No one was at the gates. No one was on the guard platforms we’d built along the walls. There wasn’t a single person in sight but someone must have seen our approach because the huge metal gates swung open in front of us.

Indecision reigned over the situation. Nyko glanced at me and raised a brow.

“Stay close to us,” I whispered.

Once inside the compound, no one moved to stop us. No one tried to talk to us. Any people we saw barely spared us a second glance. We made it to Ona’s cabin without any trouble.

He was standing the doorway, obviously waiting for us. The man they called Boss refrained from talking until we’d stopped in front of him to speak.

I couldn’t see what made him so impressive to his people. He wasn’t all that tall, maybe his shoulders were wide but… he just wasn’t scary. He didn’t look like a crazy dictator. He looked like an overworked teacher.

“Can I help you folks with something?” He raised a brow.

“Well seeing as you took our home and our daughters I certainly hope so,” Nyko replied loudly. His voice was carried on the wind, catching the attention of the people nearby, “or was there something else you think you can help us with?”

“I’m sorry. We found these cabins abandoned. We didn’t see any harm in taking wasn’t defended,” Pike replied, “Must have been some other group that attacked you.”

“That’s a lie,” Nyko said, very clearly, his voice much louder than it had been.

Pike didn’t acknowledge the doctor’s words. He continued to speak as if he was behind a podium, “As for your daughters, we did come across a lost group of young women. We promised them shelter and safety. If they’re your daughters why didn’t you make sure they were protected?”

Nyko stepped forward. His loud responses to the leader’s calm lies were starting to attract a crowd, “You came in here with guns blazing. You killed our leader in cold blood when she offered you and your people a safe place to live. Then, while you gunned us down, you snatched any young female you could find!”

“Your leader? That old woman who never offered us a single cabin?” Pike attempted to spin the story. He looked from person to person in the crowd. I bit my lips to keep from smiling, I could finally see worry in his cold brown eyes.

“I thought you found this place abandoned?” Nyko shot back with a smirk.

Beside me Lexa tightened her grip on her rifle. Nyko must have heard the rattle because he put a hand on her shoulder and said, “this is the granddaughter of the woman you murdered in that cabin behind you. Are you really going to stand there and lie to her about what happened?”

“I’ve told nothing but the truth. When I met with the old woman all she offered was to allow us to live here if we built our own cabins and helped to provide food. She wanted to take our food and stores for her own people,” He was pandering to his people now. He could see the crowd building up and listening intently.

“Everybody who lived here at the time of your massacre helped build their own cabin and work the fields or tend the herds,” Nyko snapped, “We survived because we relied on each other.”

“You were weak. We are strong,” Pike raised his arms and smiled at his people, “You ought to cut and run.”

“You can’t really think we’ll just accept the fact that you have seventeen of our young women?” One of the women in our delegation, my old history teacher Mrs. Blackstone, spoke up, “That we’ll take you at your word about their safety.”

“They asked for mercy. So mercy is what they have been given,” Pike replied with a one-shouldered shrug.

“Mercy would be to return them to us,” Nyko countered.

Pike scratched the back of his head, exaggerating the gesture like a father thinking over a question asked by a child. He didn’t even have the decency to look like he was actually considering Nyko’s frank statement. While he played to his crowd his eyes searched their faces. He was gauging the reactions of his people. If his black hair had been just a little longer, he probably run his hand over it and scratched at his scalp, really making look like he was thinking. After a minute or two he seemed to have decided he didn’t like what he was seeing.

He stepped to the side of the door and waved his hand into the cabin, “Why don’t you come in and we’ll discuss this like adults.”

Lexa and I moved to follow Nyko into the cabin. Pike shook his head, “no, just him. You can stay right there.”

“Not happening,” Lexa snapped.

“I’m not going anywhere without them,” Nyko said, “I don’t trust you.”

“There’s no need to be rude,” Pike replied. “Not in my home.”

“That wasn’t rude. That was the truth. You killed Ona when she was trying to welcome you into our home,” said Nyko. “And this isn’t your home. You stole _our_ home with cold blooded murder.”

Pike seemed to consider that. We could all hear the rumbling of the crowd. From the bits and pieces I could make out, most had no clue what had happened to the previous occupants of the compound. They sounded uneasy with the idea of their new home being taken by force.

“You keep the guns pointed at the floor otherwise we’ll have a problem,” Pike finally ordered, when he waved toward the door of Ona’s cabin.

“They’ll keep them pointed wherever they’d like,” Nyko snapped right back, “You don’t get to tell any of us how this is going to go.”

Pike started to argue but Lexa called out, “We could always stay out here and talk in front of all your friends.”

We were hustled inside pretty quickly after that. Lexa’s jaw clenched when Pike sat in her grandmother’s rocking chair. I reached over and smoothed back a lock of chestnut hair before resting my hand on her shoulder. I knew she hated seeing her grandmother’s home without her in it but she’d insisted on going wherever I went, especially if I was going inside the compound. I was playing with Lexa’s ear and looking around when I spotted Joey and Josh. Their greasy black hair and too cold eyes were hard to miss. They stood in the doorway and watched Nyko speaking with their leader. I knew the moment Josh recognized me. His eyes grew round and he leaned over to whisper something to Joey.

Pulling on Lexa’s ear until she looked at me, I motioned toward the door with a small jerk of my head. She saw Joey and Josh in the doorway but her brows came together, she hadn’t seen either of the men that day on the bridge, she’d been too far away. Nor had she really seen them the day they walked down our street, she’d been hiding most of the time they’d been close to the house. What she could see was our exit was being blocked.

“From the bridge! They had Vaughn!” I murmured. I didn’t need to explain further but I did anyway, “Joey is the one with the green eyes and the scar. It’s from Vaughn’s gun.”

Lexa stepped forward and spoke quietly to Nyko, “We need to go Nyko. Now.”

“We haven’t finished talking,” The doctor replied.

Lexa moved so she was standing between Joey and Josh and me. Her green eyes were hard with anger, “Those two attacked Vaughn and Clarke when we were on the road, when we were trying to get to… to get away. I won’t stay where they’re welcome. Neither will Clarke.”

Normally I hated when someone tried to speak for me, but I was more than okay with not being around Joey and Josh. I nodded and said, “Let’s go Doc.”

“Lexa,” Nyko said, his voice even and calm even if his face were filled with annoyance, “We need to get the girls out of here. You can handle their presence for a few more minutes.”

“We’re leaving. Now,” Lexa raised her rifle to her shoulder and pointed it at Joey, “You can stay here and negotiate if you’d like, but you’ll probably have the same luck Mamó had.”

Faced with that option Nyko chose to accompany us out of the cabin and then the compound. We retreated to Lexa’s old house a few miles away. Once we were safely inside, Nyko’s lecture started.

“We could have saved those girls today Lexa! What were you thinking? You can’t demand to leave because you’re jealous! You can’t undermine me like that if I’m meant to be in charge.”

“As if I have anything to be jealous of!” Lexa shook her head. “Those men attacked them on that bridge! Do you really think that man was ever going to let our girls go peacefully?”

“Which men?” Nyko asked after scrutinizing Lexa for a moment.

“The ones guarding the door,” Lexa replied, “They found Vaughn and Clarke when we tried to head for Wyoming.”

“They kept calling us ‘primes’ that day. I guess now we really know what that means,” I added. “And now they’ve seen Lexa, she’s definitely a prime too.”

Closing his eyes, Nyko pinched the bridge of his nose, “So what now?”

“Asking isn’t working,” I replied.

“So we go back and strongly encourage them to cooperate,” Lexa added, “Like Vaughn and Rob said.”

****

Our march through Oak Openings was much more ominous the second time around. The people followed us, whispering and jeering as we made our way back to Ona’s cabin.

Pike was waiting for us. He’d taken off his sports coat and rolled up his sleeves, his slacks were covered in dust from the bricks he was making. Without looking up he spoke to us, “Back so soon?”

“Do you want to have this discussion here? In front of your people?” Nyko replied calmly.

“I want to see the girls. I want to make sure they’re okay,” I said at the same time.

“I’m afraid that isn’t going to happen,” Pike shook his head, “I don’t want to traumatize them by forcing them to see the people who abandoned them.”

“If they’re as content as you say they are, why won’t you let her see them?” Nyko asked, “Hiding something?”

With a growl, Pike snapped, “I’ve got nothing to hide.”

Joey stepped out of the cabin then, leering at me, “Boss, maybe it’d be better to go inside for this.”

Josh nodded as he appeared behind him, blue eyes dancing with nerves, “Yeah Boss. Why are they so eager to have you out here? Why do they want you so exposed?”

“You’re the one who seemed eager to get away from all these ears earlier Charles,” Nyko said easily.

Pike’s back stiffened, “It’s Senator Pike.”

“Senator?” Lexa scoffed, “Senator of what? There’s no government anymore.”

“Then you can call me Boss,” He stood and took the towel Joey offered him, wiping his face and short black hair with it before tossing it back in Joey’s face.

I shook my head, “You’re not my boss. I’ll stick with Charles.”

Pike and his lackies led the way into the cabin, leaving us to follow.

“You ought to have some respect for your elders young lady,” Pike snapped as soon as the door closed behind us.

I watched a vein pulse in his forehead as I considered my response. Finally I shrugged, “Respect is earned.”

“That statement ought to have been followed up with a ‘sir’ you know,” Joey snapped.

“I’ll call him _sir_ when he calls me _ma’am_. And Charles needs to tell you to back off. You don’t need to be so close to me,” I glared at Pike. He stiffened even more and pursed his lips, refusing to reply to me. My guess was right on. Charles Pike wasn’t a fan of women, “But I guess you prefer to call girls like me _prime_ right?”

Pike’s eyes narrowed to slits, “excuse me?”

“Well, I mean, that’s what Joey and Josh said when they tried to kidnap me and my sister. We didn’t ask for safety or mercy or whatever. We asked to be left alone. They tried to drag my sister into a nearby car. Why do you think they did that? Not like they could drive her back here. How would having her isolated in an unusable vehicle have kept her safe?” I spoke loudly. I wanted my voice to carry outside to the crowd, “In fact, that fancy scar Joey has on his face was a gift from the butt of my sister’s rifle.”

“Clarke,” Nyko said, his voice a calm warning.

I knew I was saying more than I should but I couldn’t help myself. I wanted Charles Pike to know I knew what kind of man he was, that I knew how he was running his group.

I leaned in a little, dropping my voice to a stage whisper, “are my cousins primes too? Maybe just Ana? Gia might still be a little too young. Do you have an age limit on primes?” I took a step forward. I wanted to take another but Lexa grabbed my wrist, “Do you really think there is anything you could say that would make me feel okay with leaving my cousins with you? Do you really think you can convince me to abandon two of the only relatives I have left?”

“I think you don’t have a choice,” Pike sneered. He approached me slowly, like a tiger stalking its prey. I held his blue eyes with my own, “I think you won’t risk doing anything that may cause harm to those young women.”

That was when I knew I had him. He thought he’d picked the weakest member of our delegation. I knew he’d focus on me once I’d ‘accidently’ mentioned he had my cousins. Once he stopped right in front of me, uncomfortably close, I smiled sweetly. Then I flipped open my knife and held it to his stomach.

I pressed the tip of the blade into his flesh I stared into his eyes and said, “it isn’t my cousins I’m worried about. I’m more than a little concerned about you and your perverted men. Those are girls you’ve kidnapped, not young women. Our civilization may have collapsed but there are still rules. Protecting the young and the vulnerable should still a priority.”

“You should think about what you’re doing,” Joey said from his place near the door.

The clanging of metal behind me meant someone was raising a gun. I fought the urge to look, to see if Joey and Josh had raised their hunting rifles on my friends. Instead I heard Lexa growling, “I’d rethink trying to point your guns at her if I were you.”

I didn’t break eye contact with Pike, “You ought to tell your lackie to lower his weapon. Lexa really doesn’t like when people point guns at me. And that probably what you want anyway right? Two primes in the middle of a fight?”

“Primes should know how to behave,” Pike growled. “Hasn’t any one taught you proper manners?”

“You mean like the two men I ran into yesterday on the trail? The ones who thought they could kill my friend and take me? Those kinds of manners?” I questioned.

“Isaac and Danny?” Josh’s face appeared in my periphery.

“Yeah. Isaac and Danny weren’t all that polite Charles,” I tsked.

Pike glared down at me, I could feel him shift on his feet, like he was thinking about trying to get away from my blade. I pressed a little harder, causing a grunt to escape his lips.

“You killed my men?” Pike asked menacingly.

“They tried to kill me first,” I replied. I nodded toward my arm and the stitches that were visible. “I don’t like when people try to kill me. They weren’t the first though and I’m sure they won’t be the last.”

The older man took a moment to study me before glancing at Joey and nodding. He turned to Nyko and spoke quietly, the way my dad would when he was really mad, “What is your offer?”

“Why don’t we discuss this outside?” Nyko asked, “I’m getting a little nervous in here. Feeling a little cooped up. Your boys seem more than eager to do harm. Maybe they’ll behave when there are others around.”

“Tell your prime to get her knife out of my belly, then we can sit on the porch like men and discuss things,” Pike replied.

It took at least a minute of inner-struggle for me to lower my knife and slip it back in my pocket. I could have ended our whole ordeal with one quick upward thrust. Joey and Josh wouldn’t have had a clue what to do. Instead I followed our plan and moved back outside with everyone else.

Once we were all settled, Nyko and Pike sat in some chairs, Lexa and me flanking Nyko while Joey and Josh stood behind Pike. The boys glared at Lexa and me, growing more annoyed when we wouldn’t pay them much attention. Lexa scanned the crowd while I rested a hand on her shoulder, playing with her earlobe, seemingly not listening to the older men when they started talking.

“So what are you offering?” Pike asked. He glanced at his followers and frowned. He met Joey’s eyes and jerked his head. The younger man nodded and turned to shoo the crowd away. When we were almost alone Pike turned back to Nyko, “It had better be something good.”

“We have flour, hard tack, butter, several kinds of jerky, and fresh water. I’m sure we can come up with a trade we can agree upon,” Nyko replied.

“What else?” Pike sounded bored.

“Excuse me?” Nyko’s brows came together.

“What you brought with you is enough for…” Pike paused and dramatically scratched his head, like he actually had to think about something, “three or four girls I’d say.”

“We brought enough supplies to last your people at least three months!” Lexa exclaimed.

“I don’t think we ration the same way you do,” Pike stretched and settled back in his chair, “I said it was good for fours girls. I meant four girls,” Pike’s eyes narrowed when he saw Nyko glance back at me. He shook his head, “Ah. Except for her cousins. You’ll need a whole lot more if you want to trade for those two.”

My jaw dropped, “What?”

Pike shrugged, “I don’t like being threatened.”

“Those weren’t threats. You should very much consider my trying to kill you a guarantee,” I shot back.

“You should take the trade Charles. Take what we’ve offered, for all the girls,” Nyko interrupted whatever Pike was going to say next, “It’s in the best interest of your people. The supplies will last you until you can learn to make these things for yourself.”

“I just said I don’t like threats,” Pike shook his head.

“I’m an awful lot like Clarke, I don’t make threats, just guarantees,” Nyko replied.

“What if I tell you to get out? That you can forget about getting any of the girls? Or what if I decide I really like those fancy rifles you’ve brought with you?” Pike rested his elbows on the arms of his chair and brought his hands together, lacing his fingers together and holding them to his mouth for a moment, “What if I make you some guarantees?”

A small plume of dirt rose from the ground just inches from Pike’s booted foot. The thump made Pike jump and look around. Another thump followed the first, this time a hole appeared in the back of Pike’s chair, inches from his head.

“Consider that a guarantee from my sister,” I smiled and jerked my thumb over my shoulder toward the trees.

“Your voice travels!” Vaughn yelled from her perch in a treetop outside the wall, “And I’m really not liking what you’ve been saying! Your voice is really irritating.”

Pike’s eyes were wide now. He stared at me while Joey and Josh ran to the wall, searching in vain for some sign of Vaughn.

“To put it plainly,” Nyko spoke, drawing Pike’s gaze back to him, “We have more weapons. We have more ammunition. And, most importantly, we are trained to use our weapons. That’s a Marine Corp sniper who has you in her sights right now.”

That was the truth, but Vaughn hadn’t wanted us to reveal anything about our stockpile of weapons.

“We’re fortified,” Pike snapped.

“That thirty feet we cleared between the wall and the trees works a bit like a double edged sword,” Nyko shrugged.

“What is that supposed to mean?” Pike growled. He’d overplayed his hand and now he knew it.

“We have enough weapons and ammunition to ensure none of you leave your cozy new compound. Ever. Not without our permission anyway,” Nyko replied evenly, “What keeps us out, keeps you in.”

“How do you figure?” Joey asked.

“We have a dozen trained marksmen. Probably more,” Nyko said, “Give us the girls or we’ll make sure none of your people go anywhere we don’t want them. That could include going to bathe in the lake, getting to the fresh water in the stores, or, if we really feel like being jerks, the fields to plant or collect harvest.”

That finally seemed to rattle Pike. He’d backed himself, and his people, firmly into a corner, “You wouldn’t do all that.”

Another thump followed by a scream came from behind Pike. Vaughn had shot Joey in the foot. He was on the ground, holding his leg and screaming.

“That’s for the bridge!” She yelled.

“We can and we will keep you contained,” said Lexa.

Pike looked dispassionately at Joey for a moment before turning to Nyko, “You’d starve us?”

“You killed a lot of our people. You took our girls. Now you won’t give them back to us, even when we’ve offered a fair trade,” Nyko shrugged.

“Get out!” Pike roared as he jumped out of his chair.

Nyko spoke calmly as he rose to his feet, “Take the trade, Charles.”

“I told you not to threaten me!” Pike shouted, “You take your supplies and you get out! We’re keeping those girls.”

Suddenly the area was filled with Pike’s people again. They were jostling each other, trying to see what was happening. I saw a flash of metal in the crowd. I searched the crowd for the source. A man had pulled a small revolver from his waistband and glared at us. The last thing we wanted was a firefight where innocent people could be harmed so we backed out of the compound as quickly as possible.

“Well,” Lexa drawled, her fingers lacing with mine as we walked toward home. She waited a beat before she chuckled and said, “that definitely didn’t go as planned.”

I shrugged. She was right. We hadn’t planned on any kind of confrontation. We’d hope Pike would be at least somewhat rational. I bumped her with my shoulder, grinning when she glanced down at me, “at least nobody died?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Come be friends! I like prompts/messages/comments!
> 
> imaginaryhistorianme.tumblr.com


	13. Chapter 13

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The standoff continues...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not much action in this one. Clarke and Lexa have a bit of a heart-to-heart though.
> 
> Comments and kudos are welcome as always!

Nyko hadn’t been bluffing. Vaughn hadn’t been posturing. Immediately after our hasty exit from the compound we had watches set up around the clock. We had people in the trees all day, every day. There really wasn’t an area of inside the walls we didn’t have constant eyes on.

I took more than my share of shifts in the trees, mostly because I wanted to see Ana and Gia. I needed to know for sure that they were okay and that Pike hadn’t tried to hurt them. The only way I could think to do that was to actually see them. So I sat on those tiny platforms for hours on end and stared at every structure inside the walls.

Anytime I wasn’t in the trees I was with Aden. The guilt over leaving him behind, even though it had only been a few days instead of the months we’d expected, was eating at me. I did everything I could to make it up to him but our leaving hadn’t really fazed the kid. He said he knew Lexa and I were always going to come back for him.

Several weeks after our unsuccessful meeting with Pike I was in the trees, staring at the cabin I’d discovered they’d been using to house the girls. It was my cabin, the one I’d built with Lexa, Raven, Harper, and Octavia. The one I’d spent nearly a year putting Aden to bed in.

It had been easy to figure out after I’d seen a girl crying in a window and a man leaving shortly after that. I had my scope trained on the cabin, watching the windows and doors, hoping I could catch a glimpse of one of my cousins. It may have been a foolish hope, but it was all I had at the time.

After a while I had to lift my head and stretch my neck. I rolled my head from one side to the other, trying to force the kinks out while I studied the canopy around me. I paused when I heard someone walking up to my tree. Minutes later Lexa pulled himself onto the platform next to me.

“Hey,” She smiled before running a hand through her already disheveled chestnut hair. She’d braided it that morning, the small braids hadn’t done much against whatever work Vaughn had put my girlfriend to and the humidity.

“Hi,” I replied. I shot a quick glance at her before raising my scope to my eye again.

Out of the corner of my eye I saw her lean back on her elbows, her feet dangling over the edge of the platform. After a few minutes she started swinging her feet.

I did my best to bite back a sigh. I knew why she was there, interrupting my shift. She’d wanted to catch me alone and in a place where she knew I couldn’t get away from her. In the weeks I’d spent in the trees or with Aden I’d also sort of been avoiding Lexa. Vaughn was convinced she was the reason our talks with Pike failed. Nothing Nyko or I said would change her mind. She’d gone back to making sure either she or Rob was around all the time so I couldn’t be alone with my girlfriend. It was easier to avoid her then to see the hurt in her eyes when I ducked out from under her arm draped across my shoulders or when the quick peck I’d give her was far less than she desired. I just couldn’t see any way around it. Fighting with Vaughn over Lexa didn’t seem like the smart thing to do when we needed to be focused on getting the girls back.

“Are you my relief?” I asked quietly. I needed there to be some sort of noise. The silence was deafening.

“No. I just wanted to see you,” She replied.

“Why?”

She sat up and swung around so one of her legs was still dangling and the other curled around my back, her heel pressed against my hip. One of her hands began to massage the sore muscles of my back while the other went to my gun, forcing me to lower it, “Why did I want to see you?”

“You see me all the time.”

“That isn’t what I meant and you know it,” Lexa sighed. She watched my face closely, frowning when I wouldn’t look at her, “She’s doing it again Clarke. Only it’s worse this time. She’s actually succeeding!”

“This isn’t about Vaughn.”

“Clarke, you know what she’s doing and you aren’t even fighting it,” She cupped my cheek in her hand. I closed my eyes and pressed my face into her palm, trapping her hand between my face and shoulder, “Just because I can watch you in the yard with Aden or walk by you when you’re in the kitchen doesn’t mean I get to see you. Just because I occasionally get the opportunity to hold you while we’re sleeping doesn’t mean I get to be with you. I’m starting to think you’re actually mad at me. That you’re okay with Vaughn running constant interference.”

Her hand dropped from my face, coming to rest on my leg. I let go of my gun and wrapped my arms around her bicep. Still not looking at her, because I knew what would happen if I did and neither tears nor kisses would solve the problem.

Shaking my head I asked, “Why would I be mad you?”

“I have no idea. But if you aren’t mad at me, why are you avoiding me?”

“I don’t want to avoid you but like you said, she’s started again. I have to make sure Ana and Gia are safe before I can fight with Vaughn over us again,” I leaned into her, pressing my forehead into the crook of her neck.

“You don’t think you can handle both?” She asked. Her arms wrapped around me and squeezed.

“I can’t stand having to constantly worry about her doing something stupid when it comes to you. I can’t be around the house right now. She’s sending Raven and Harper on scouting missions every other day looking for more guns and ammunition and who knows what else. I swear I heard her talking to Raven about building a bomb the other day. My idiot cousin seemed intrigued by the idea of ‘making something go boom’, her words not mine.”

Lexa sighed, seeing through my weak dodge, “Clarke, Vaughn can’t just cut me out of your life. She wouldn’t let you do that with her and Rob.”

“Honestly, I don’t think she’d mind if I did,” I replied. “The more I watch them, the more I’m convinced they aren’t what we think they are. At least not seriously.”

“Clarke, please,” Lexa pleaded.

“Lexa, what if I’m not there, or if Raven or Harper aren’t there, who is going to get between the two of you when she starts in on you?” I leaned my head back just far enough that I could see her profile, “I’d rather have you safe and mad at me over distancing myself temporarily than being completely distracted by the all the things I can think of her doing to you.”

“You’re too protective. I can handle Vaughn,” Lexa chuckled. She winked before pressing a kiss to my forehead and embracing me tightly again.

“I can barely handle her and I grew up with her.”

Lexa chuckled quietly before she said, “I told her today she could shove her chore list where the sun doesn’t shine and that I’m going to become your shadow because that’s the only way I get to see you.”

“You did what?” I couldn’t believe it; Lexa stood up to Vaughn and lived to tell the tale. I knew it was only a matter of time before there was a big confrontation. Apparently the tension still needed to build a little.

She shrugged, pushing a lock of blonde hair behind my ear, “I’m tired of not seeing you. I don’t like it. So I told her I was done with being her little gopher. Before she could kill me I grabbed my gun, and ran here. I’m actually surprised she didn’t send Rob after me.”

I grabbed her face and forced her to look at me. After a moment I smiled and winked back at her, letting her know I understood and that I approved. I knew I’d have to smooth Vaughn’s ruffled feathers when I got home but I didn’t care. For the first time in weeks I was able to give Lexa a proper kiss. And right after that proper kiss I got to give her a kiss that was decidedly not proper.

I ruined our little reunion after those two kisses though. As much as I wanted, and maybe needed a proper make-out session with my girlfriend, I knew there were other things taking priority. So, after one last slightly drawn out kiss, I grabbed my gun and started watching the cabins again. Lexa tried to distract me again; pressing kisses to my forehead, ear, and neck, wherever she could reach really. When her attempts failed she sighed. She stared at me for a while before rummaging through the pockets of her cargo pants until she found what she was looking for, which was a book. She settled back against the tree and started reading, her hand absentmindedly rubbing my back and neck again.

Sitting in silence with Lexa like that had always been comfortable and easy. I expected a little weirdness since we were dozens of feet up a tree and I was watching people through the scope on a rifle but no, there was nothing but companionable silence. After a while she put her book aside and combed her fingers through my hair. Then she hummed quietly while she braided the blonde tresses.

Eventually I spotted something. The familiar blond haired head of Chuck Abernathy was walking toward my cabin determinedly. He was talking to people as he passed them, smiling and laughing like walking toward a house full of kidnapped girls was a totally normal thing to do. He had to know one of us was probably watching him.

Chuck’s pace slowed as he got closer to the cabin. He shifted his grip on the six-pack of water he was carrying, like he was testing the weight or something. He came to a stop and studied at the trees. He was looking for us. After a few minutes he took a deep breath and started moving toward the house again.

I clicked the safety off and pulled my rifle tighter into my shoulder.

“Vaughn doesn’t want us wasting ammunition,” Lexa said as she sat up behind me.

I let out the air out of my lungs slowly, steadying myself as I squeezed the trigger. A puff of dirt rose about two feet in front of Chuck’s feet. I starred through the scope, watching for his reaction, as I replied, “I’m not wasting anything.”

“Griffin, you can’t keep everyone out of that cabin.”

“No,” I squeezed the trigger again when Chuck risked another step closer to the cabin. The puff of dirt was only a few inches away from Chuck’s foot this time. I pulled my head up to look over my shoulder at Lexa, “I can keep him away right now though. So that’s what I’m going to.”

When I put my eye back to the scope I saw Chuck taking another step. He apparently didn’t think I’d really shoot him. Or maybe he thought whoever was shooting had bad aim. As he lifted his foot to take a step I squeezed the trigger for the third time. This time the bullet bit into the dirt exactly where Chuck’s foot had been about to fall. He froze. He lowered his foot slowly and glared up into the trees. Then he seemed to finally get my message. He tossed the water toward the cabin and slowly backed away.

“See?” I said. I glanced over my shoulder again, “Now he knows we’re actually here and we know where the girls are being held. It’s a win-win.”

From that day on we started tossing our own supplies of food and water over the wall for the girls to gather. None of the people inside the compound entered the cabin. In fact, it was almost like they’d created an imaginary fence around it; no one came within twenty feet of the cabin. Every once in a while one of the men would try to sneak in, usually it was Chuck, Joey, or Josh, but it was easy enough to keep them out. I didn’t feel all that bad when Raven reported on evening that she’d shot Josh in the lower leg.

Unfortunately not every one was as confident shooting into the compound. If I wasn’t on watch over the cabin, or Vaughn or Raven, it was rare that any shots were fired at all. It was frustrating to know there were still men in the compound visiting the cabin and escorting girls out to have time alone with them.

About a month into our stand off I decided to try my hand at archery. I didn’t want to waste bullets on warning shots and Vaughn knew how to make arrows so it seemed like a good compromise. My dad had given me a Mongolian bow for my fourteenth birthday. Vaughn helped me oil and string the bow. I practiced in our backyard every chance I got.

Lexa was a big help with the practice. She’d been an avid archer before the collapse. I’d been shocked when she mentioned it to me. I had no idea she was a competitive archer, I didn’t even know she knew have to notch an arrow! Besides all her experience with a bow it was fun to be outside, just the two of us. Learning archery could be very up close and personal. Unfortunately Vaughn quickly picked up on the theme of our practices, which was basically shooting an occasional arrow when one of us needed to come up for air, so she started supervising us.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let me know what you think! Visit me on tumblr or leave a comment here! I love hearing from you!
> 
> imaginaryhistorianme.tumblr.com


	14. Chapter 14

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Clarke and Co. get some unexpected guests.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Enjoy! Let me know what you think!
> 
> Comments and kudos are welcome as always. I like them!

Six weeks after our standoff with Pike began the whole situation changed. I had just gotten home from my shift in the trees, already in the backyard with my bow and Lexa, when Aden came running out of the house.

“Clarkey! Clarkey!” He yelled.

I handed Lexa the bow and stooped to catch the boy, “what’s wrong?”

“They’re back!” Aden screeched, causing a ringing in my ear.

“Who?” Lexa asked.

“Ana and Gia! And some of the others too!” Aden squirmed in my arms until I lowered him to the ground. He pushed his too long blonde hair out of his eyes and grabbed my hand so he could pull me toward the house, “They brought some new girls too!”

“New girls?” Lexa repeated. She handed me back my bow so she could gather her own equipment.

“Yeah! I don’t know them. But they’re with Ana and Gia!”

The three of us entered the house. Vaughn and Raven were in the kitchen talking and pointing at our map of the compound.

“Where are they?” I asked.

“At the gate. Harper is bringing them in,” Vaughn replied absentmindedly.

While we’d been keeping the raiders confined to Oak Openings we had been fortifying our neighborhood. Some of the survivors of Oak Openings joined us while others stayed at the schools. Together with the twenty-eight other people who lived in the subdivision we used everything we could find to build fences and guard platforms. Luckily our house was in a subdivision just outside of Whitehouse. We were surrounded by farmland. That made it easier to see anything coming at us.

The fences were made of materials like sheet metal, wood, and bricks we’d made ourselves. The gates were huge sections chain link fences we’d appropriated from the softball fields in the village park.

Raven looked up from the map, “as soon as I recognized them I ran here. Harper and Rob are at the gates waiting. We sent a runner to the schools to let them know some of the girls escaped,”

“How are they here?” I asked.

“That’s what we’re trying to figure out,” Vaughn said.

“Maybe they climbed the walls!” Aden pointed at the map.

“Sorry buddy, but I don’t think so,” Lexa shook her head and ruffled his hair. “There’s no way. The walls may be made of stones but I can’t see anyone actually being able to find a way to climb them.”

“Maybe they dug a really deep hole!” Aden tried again.

Vaughn’s head finally lifted. She looked at me and pinched her lower lip between her fingers while she considered that, a habit she picked up from Dedko, “how deep are the foundations of the walls?”

“We weren’t there when the walls were started,” I replied with a shrug.

“The last time we measured they were roughly eight feet thick and thirteen feet high,” Lexa added, “I have no idea whether they went down three inches or thirty feet.”

“Wouldn’t we have noticed if people were digging?” Raven asked.

“Maybe they were digging from inside the cabin,” Vaughn pointed at the little model we’d made for the cabin, “We haven’t let the raiders inside for weeks. They wouldn’t have even had to hide the dirt.”

“And the floors weren’t exactly concrete,” I added.

We stared at the model cabin. It sat only inches from the wall. In the real compound the cabin was fifteen or twenty feet from the wall.

“Is it possible?” I looked at Vaughn.

“For a bunch of teenage girls to dig a really deep hole?” She replied. She ran a hand through her hair, grasping at the roots tightly while she thought. After a pause she nodded, “Sure. But I’m not sure they could have figured out the structural supports and all that.”

“So maybe they got lucky?” Lexa shrugged.

“Lucky to not be buried alive?” Raven shook her head. “A year and a half ago those girls would have thought they were lucky to get a text from their crush.”

Lexa sighed, “I miss texting.”

“I miss video games,” Raven said.

While my companions started to go down memory lane, thinking of every type of technology they missed, I decided to head toward the gate. Without pausing to take off my quiver or drop my bow I ran out of the house.

It was easy enough to find Ana in the crowd. She was several inches taller than the rest of the girls. Her black hair was messier than I’d ever seen it and her face was dirty but I could have spotted her willowy frame from a mile away. And wherever Ana was, Gia was bound to be close by.

When I was ten yards away Ana finally saw me. She and Gia broke away from the others and moved toward me. I practically threw myself in Ana’s arms when I reached them. After a quick hard hug I pulled back so I could look at her. Even through the dirt I could tell she was okay. She didn’t look hurt at all. She looked mad. I smiled sadly and nodded, letting her know we’d talk soon, away from Gia.

I turned to my younger cousin. I read the sadness in her eyes before wrapping my arms around her. We stood in the street, rocking back and forth. I held her more and more tightly while she cried.

Who knew how long I’d been squeezing Gia when Vaughn showed up. I held her tighter as I watched Vaughn take Ana’s face between her hands, studying her closely. I released Gia but held her hand and led her to Vaughn’s side.

Vaughn glanced at Gia quickly before looking back at Ana, “You’re okay?”

“We’re fine,” Ana covered Vaughn’s hand, “We were claimed but they said we had to wait six weeks before we could _enjoy_ the men’s company. Then your fun little standoff started. No one touched us.”

Gia sniffled next to me, “They said they had to make sure the primes hadn’t been ruined before we could be of use.”

“Ruined?” I repeated.

“Yeah. The girls who had been there a while used that to help us,” Ana said.

“Helped you how?” Vaughn finally stepped back and resumed her usual air of standoffishness.

“They kept losing the ‘records’ for us,” Gia answered.

I could only shake my head, “Let’s get you inside. We can talk about this after you’ve had something to eat.”

“What about the others?” Ana pulled away from me when I reached out for her hand.

“Others?” I looked around.

I’d forgotten about the others. There were seven of them huddled together just inside gates. I recognized some of them from Oak Openings, others I’d never seen before. I waved one of the gate guards over and sent him looking for volunteers to house the girls for a few nights.

One of the girls approached us, Ana and Gia moved to her sides. She was beautiful, in a ‘she should be a super model’ sort of way. Her black hair had the perfect wave running through its length, coupled with her honey brown eyes, high cheekbones, and sharp jaw. I could easily see why she’d be considered a prime.

Ana said, “this is Sophie, she’s going to stay with us.”

“I don’t think…” Vaughn started to argue.

“It’s fine,” I interrupted, “You guys can take Ezven, Luka, and Zako’s room.”

It was only after their friends were settled that Ana and Gia allowed us to hustle them into the house. Lexa already had a fire going, a bubbly pot of water hanging over it. Rob was setting out our plates and flatware, like we were about to have a formal dinner.

We let the three girls eat in peace. Vaughn would try to ask questions but I’d clear my throat or shake my head every time. Once they’d cleared their plates though, Vaughn couldn’t be stopped.

The girls answered each question in turn, Ana doing most of the talking. They’d escaped by making braided ladders out of sheets. Ana tossed one end over the wall where one of our watchers caught it and held tight while the girls started to climb.

When the questions turned to information about the raiders, Ana and Gia had few answers. Vaughn was frustrated by their lack of knowledge. Nothing the girls knew would help keep us safe. Or help us take the raiders down.

Finally, probably because she was tired of Vaughn’s ranting, Sophie spoke up, “I’ve been with them from the beginning and I can’t tell you much more than they can.”

“The beginning?” I asked. The end of life as we knew it had started a year and a half ago. She’d been a prisoner for that long?

“Yes. But it wasn’t always… like it is now. I don’t know how long ago the change started. It must have been months ago when Dad announced his new policies.”

“Dad?” Rob spoke quietly, “What do you mean?”

“My father is Charles Pike,” She replied, “Senator Charles Pike of Michigan to be exact.”

Vaughn laughed and clapped her hands excitedly, “Oh this is great. We have Boss’s daughter in our house. This is exactly the kind of leverage we need!”

How could a father do this to his own child? How could he live with himself? How could he live with the knowledge that his daughter was literally being claimed by his men and was looked at like she was nothing but a potential walking incubator?

“Can we maybe not call a girl who is a year younger than me leverage?” I snapped at my sister.

“Did you come here voluntarily?” Lexa asked Sophie.

“Yes,” she replied, “I love my dad but I hate what he turned our people into. At first we stayed near home but then the food ran out so Dad brought us south because he knew the land in Ohio was good for crops. Only, we came too late to plant anything. That was when he started sending men out to find whatever we needed.”

“You became raiders,” I said.

“Yes. We started raiding. Then Mom got sick. Not with the flu but with something else. She got sick because we had no food. Whatever food we found, she gave to us. It took her a long time to die…” Sophie trailed off, her eyes filled with tears. I thought we were about to watch the girl have a melt down; instead she sniffled a few times, squeezed her eyes shut and took a deep breath. She started speaking again as she wiped the tears away, “that was when Dad really lost it.”

“So you’ve been locked up for months?” Harper asked, clearly horrified.

“Yes. I don’t know how long,” Sophie replied, “It’s hard to keep track of time sometimes.”

Vaughn pulled at her lip. After a minute she took a deep breath and ran a hand through her hair, “So that’s why you came here? How do I know you aren’t here as a spy or something for your father?”

Sophie stiffened. Her jaw was clenched and her eyes hard. She started to lean forward, like she was going to try to get in Vaughn’s face. Ana put a hand on her shoulder and shook her head. She turned to Vaughn and said, “She’s not here for that man.”

“Then why is she here?” Vaughn asked.

“Who would choose to stay there?” I replied.

“We can’t be sure…” Vaughn started.

Sophie slammed her hand down on the table, “My father agreed… no, he encouraged his men to pick young women to claim for their own. He offered me up for his favorites to fight over like… like a piece of meat of something. He wouldn’t even look at me the day one of his men killed another because of me. You really think I want to help him? You think I’m trying to gain his trust or his favor or something?”

“I think I don’t know you,” Vaughn replied evenly.

“I’m here because I’m not something to be claimed. I’m a person.”

“And for Moira,” Ana added softly, “You’re here for Moira.”

“Who is Moira?” Rob asked.

Sophie shook her head. She covered Ana’s hand, the one on her shoulder, with her own and sniffled, “My little sister.”

“You have a little sister? Is she in the cabin with the other girls?” I asked.

“No, she’s too young,” Sophie replied. She sniffled again, then got up from the table and disappeared up the stairs. Ana was right behind her.

“Sophie hasn’t seen Moira in months. At least, she hasn’t seen her without a window between them,” Gia explained. Her eyes stay on the table but I could see the tears welling up. “She agreed to come with us, even encouraged us when we told her our plan, just so she could have a chance to get Moira out. She’s only got a few months before Boss will put her in the cabin.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let me know what you think! Visit me on tumblr or leave a comment here! I love hearing from you!
> 
> imaginaryhistorianme.tumblr.com
> 
>  
> 
> (We may or may not find out something big in the next chapter...)


	15. Chapter 15

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Clarke and her friends are given some surprising news.
> 
> Lexa introduces something she has been working on with Raven.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this took longer than expected. Last week sort of sucked. Sorry about that!
> 
> Leave a comment or some kudos! I love them! (All fanfic writers do...)

The next morning Lexa and I were on our way to the platforms when Raven found us. She came sprinting up behind us, skidding to the stop and grabbing on to me for support. She panted out several breaths and then said, “They want a meeting.”

“Who?” Lexa questioned when she didn’t elaborate further.

Raven stood up and grabbed her side, like she had a cramp and winced before saying, “Charles Pike and his friends. They started shooting into the trees when they figured out the girls were gone. Pike came out of his cabin real ticked off. He just shouted over and over again that he wanted a meeting with Nyko tomorrow.”

“How’d they figure out the girls were gone so fast?” I asked.

“Vaughn thinks one of the girls told a man who came to see her,” Raven replied before she shook her head. “We haven’t let anybody in the building though.”

I didn’t know what to think. Why would the girls tell the raiders about the breakout?

“It doesn’t matter,” Lexa said. “Lets just go see what the plan is for tomorrow.”

“Rob and Cara went to get Nyko. Vaughn sent me after the two of you. Frankie and Nicole are on their way to take your shift in the trees,” Raven explained.

The three of us took off for the house. Vaughn would already have a plan mostly formulated and the longer we made her wait the more irritated she’d get. Irritated Vaughn would be harder to get the plan out of quickly, she’d want to be surly and snappy if we let her stew for too long.

Thankfully we hadn’t been too far away so we arrived at the house minutes later. Vaughn had her map on the table, Sophie and Ana were pointing things out to her. They were talking about what they could see from the cabin.

“So what’s the plan?” I asked.

“You’re meeting him at Lexa’s old house tomorrow,” Vaughn replied.

“Who is meeting him?” Raven moved one of the model cabins on the map.

“Nyko is. Lexa and Clarke are going to be there as support.”

I stepped up the table, waving my hand in front of Vaughn’s face. She glanced up at me for a moment before looking back at the map. I sighed, “Where are you going to be?”

“Rob and I are going to Oak Openings with Ana and Sophie. We’re going to use the meeting as a distraction to try to get more of the girls out,” Vaughn explained, pushing my hand out of her way.

“And how are you going to do that without starting a war?” Lexa asked.

“By planning everything very carefully and not trying to not get caught,” Vaughn responded calmly, her eyes never leaving the map.

I stared at the side of Vaughn’s head, not sure how to respond, “Did you… was that a joke?”

“Just a little one,” Vaughn replied with a shrug. “Wanted to lighten the mood a little. Thought we could use a laugh.”

“You shouldn’t do that. You aren’t a mood lightener,” Raven shook her head rapidly. “It creeps me out when you try to be funny.”

“Well it annoys me when you refuse to answer me unless I speak Yiddish and yet you do it all the time,” She glanced at Raven and smirked.

Sophie glanced between Vaughn and Raven, “Yiddish? For real?”

“It’s a long story. It’s better if you don’t ask questions,” Ana replied in a stage whisper.

Raven shrugged and sighed, “ _Dos gantseh leben iz a milchomeh_ ,” (All of life is a struggle.)

“On that note, I’m going to go check and re-check equipment for tomorrow,” I laughed and ran out of the room before Vaughn could even think of demanding a translation.

****

The sun was at its peak by the time we approached Lexa’s old house. Nyko and the other adults were armed this time at Vaughn’s insistence. Charles Pike and his people were already making themselves comfortable. He was sitting on the front steps; a shotgun was resting across his knees.

“Nice of you to join us,” Pike smiled.

We stopped just a few yards away. Lexa smirked back at Pike, “We found a few of your friends on our way in.”

Nyko waved a hand over his head. Out of the trees came five men with their hands up. A few of our people appeared behind them, guns trained on their backs.

“Hope you don’t mind that we asked them to come along,” Lexa grinned.

Pike’s smiled faltered then dropped, “I had no idea they were out there.”

“So you’re losing control of your people?” I asked.

“Why don’t you tell the kids to keep their mouth shut and let the adults talk?” Pike growled as he turned to Nyko.

“I’ve been telling them to be quiet for over a year. Hasn’t worked before, I doubt it’d work now,” Nyko shrugged and sighed like a long-suffering father.

“You’ve lost control of your group?” Pike echoed my words.

“Oh, Clarke and her friends have never been part of my group. She’s a leader on her own Charles. You ought to respect that. You should respect her. It’s a mistake not to, a mistake I’ve seen others make,” Nyko clapped a hand on my shoulder and smiled proudly, “She saved me at the beginning of all of this. Me and my daughter actually, the one you tried to kidnap. I’m a part of their group, not the other way around. When it comes to Clarke, I’m more of a mouthpiece than anything.”

“I’m not answering to a little girl,” The rebel leader’s chest swelled, like someone had just questioned his manhood.

“Good thing I’m not all that little then,” I replied. Compared to Pike I wasn’t anyway. I was only a few inches shorter than the man.

Pike started to say something but Nyko stepped forward, “So you wanted to meet with me?”

“I want the girls back,” Pike glared at Nyko. His face was red and his eyes hard, if he were a cartoon I think there’d have been smoke coming out of his ears.

Nyko smirked and rocked back on his heels, “Oh how the tables have turned.”

“Those girls are property of my community.”

“People aren’t property,” Lexa shot back.

“Some of those girls have parents in our compound,” Pike said.

“Why were they being held in that cabin?” Lexa asked.

Pike glanced at Lexa quickly, “you know why.”

“Yeah,” Nyko sighed and rubbed a hand over his face. He glanced at me for a quick second before turning back to Pike with a glare set on his usually kind face. “That’s what we thought.”

“Give them back,” Pike demanded.

Nyko shook his head, “That isn’t going to happen. I won’t force anyone to go back if they don’t want to be there,”

“You have my daughter!” Pike finally stood.

“I was wondering when you were going to try using that,” I shook my head, “Sophie doesn’t send her regards by the way. She did send a message but there is language involved that I am not comfortable using.”

“My daughter knows her duty,” Pike shouted.

Nyko spoke quietly, “don’t you think its odd that you keep talking about your daughter but you won’t say her name?”

“You will return my daughter to me by this time tomorrow. You will bring her and any other girl who was not part of your compound here,” Pike jabbed his finger at Nyko. “I’ll let you keep the ones that were yours before.”

“We will not,” The doctor replied evenly.

“You will!” Pike shouted, “They will be here or you will answer to me.”

“Not going to happen,” I replied and shook my head. “We won’t send those girls back to you. No when we know what you’ll demand from them.”

“The girls don’t belong to you. They belong to the people in my compound,” Pike took a step toward me.

“They belong to themselves! And that isn’t your compound, you stole it from us,” Lexa moved to stand right next to me. “We haven’t forgotten about that either.”

Nyko held up his hand, “You can keep making that same demand over and over again but we aren’t sending those girls back. We’ll let them choose. If they want to go back then we’ll bring them. If no one shows up, you’ll know why.”

“You will bring them. All of them. Or you will pay,” Pike growled.

“No,” Nyko said and motioned for our group to walk away.

“You give me back my daughter and I’ll give you back the men and another girl or two we took too,” Pike proposed. The look that crossed his face as soon as the words left his mouth, as quick as smoke blowing in the wind, told me he hadn’t meant to mention any men.

“What men?” Nyko probed, glancing back over his shoulder. “What girls?”

“The ones we took when we fought them in the streets of your little town,” Pike replied.

I couldn’t stop myself, I had to correct him, “it’s a village.”

“What men? What girls?” Nyko asked again, “Give us names.”

“I don’t know their names,” Pike scoffed, like that was the dumbest thing he’d ever heard.

“The one with the limp is Octavia,” Josh spoke up. “The pretty one I mean.”

Darkness immediately threatened my vision. I fought to keep myself out of that tunnel. Octavia. Had I heard correctly?

“Did you just say Octavia?” Lexa’s hand landed on my shoulder, “Octavia what? What’s she look like?”

“Short, muscly, brown hair,” Josh replied. “Pretty feisty. Good fighter from I’ve seen.”

Could it really be our Octavia?! My Octavia?!

“Do you know this Octavia?” Pike’s eyes searched my face. Even though I knew what he was seeing, I couldn’t wipe the hope from my face.

“You obviously know we do,” Lexa snapped.

“So give me my daughter and I’ll let you have the girls we saved and I’ll let you take your pretty friend too.” Pike leered down at me.

Taking in the discussion was hard. Every time I heard my best friend’s I fought to hold back a gasp. I’d spent two months thinking she was dead. Two months thinking I’d never see her again. Sometimes I’d talk to her, ask her to help figure out me what to do. No wonder it never felt like she was listening.

“We’re not going to do that,” Nyko’s voice cut into my thoughts.

“Doc! This is Octavia we’re talking about!” I demanded, my hands gripping his forearm tightly.

“You want to trade Sophie for Octavia? All those other girls are worth giving up and damning to a life of suffering for Octavia?” He snapped. His eyes never leaving Pike. “Is that what Octavia would want? Do you think she’d be okay with any one of those girl taking her place? You know Octavia, even hurt and limping Octavia is a fighter. They probably see her as one of their best primes Clarke.”

I shook my head. Octavia would never agree to a trade. She’d say she could take all of that better than someone else. She was too strong and mule headed for her own good.

“I want my daughter!” Pike roared.

“No,” Nyko shook his head, “I can’t do that.”

There was a vein protruding from Pike’s forehead; it almost looked like it was about to burst, “If you don’t give me my daughter I’m going to make that girl’s life hell!”

“I’ll kill you if you touch her!” I shouted back. Lexa’s arms looped around my waist, keeping me from launching myself at the man.

“Try me little girl!” Pike bellowed, veins bulging from his forehead and neck.

Despite the arms around me I lunged at him. Lexa held tighter to my waist and wrestled me away. I screamed and cursed at the smirking man in front of me in every language I could think of.

“This isn’t going to help Griffin,” Lexa whispered in my ear. “ _Em pleni Klark_.”

“But if you’d let me stab him a time as two I’ll feel better!” I bit out, still struggling to get free.

“No,” Nyko said. He glanced at Pike one more time before once again motioning for us to leave, “No girls.”

“Your friend won’t be too happy with you,” Pike smirked at me. “I’ll let her know we offered up a fair deal and everything.”

“If I were you Charles, I’d leave her well alone,” Nyko warned. “Clarke may be young but she’s awfully protective of the people she calls hers. Protective people are dangerous when crossed.”

Pike snorted, like he was trying to fight off a laugh, “I’m not scared of any little girl.”

I heard Nyko scoff at that, “You ought to be.”

****

The walk home passed faster than ever. Lexa tried to calm me. She tried to sooth me, rubbing a hand up and down my back, whispering in my ear, and an occasional kiss to the side of my head. It was hopeless. Nothing was going to calm me. Not when I knew Octavia was alive and in the compound at the mercy of Charles Pike.

“Lexa,” I whispered. I drifted back to the edge of our group, allowing the other to pass us so I could talk to her. “I have to get Octavia out of there.”

“We will,” Lexa assured quickly.

“Now.”

Her head had never moved from side to side so quickly, “Clarke, we have to be smart about this. We can’t go into a fight like that without a plan. Pike will be waiting for you to make a mistake.”

“Pike doesn’t know me,” I snapped.

“No, but he knows you’re a teenager,” Lexa replied, her hand lifting to the side of my face and cupping my cheek gently. “Remember back in D.C. when we couldn’t believe Ms. Indra would send us on that trek? We all said she knew teenagers were too quick to act, to stupid to not do something stupid. That’s still true.”

“I can’t leave her in there.”

“We won’t. But we have Vaughn and Rob and Nyko. They’ll figure this out,” Lexa promised as she leaned in to press a kiss to my forehead.

I gripped her wrist, holding her hand to my face for a moment before I stepped away, “We’re getting my best friend back.”

“Of course we are,” She scoffed, like she couldn’t believe I’d ever think otherwise.

“If all else fails, we have Raven. She’s been studying that manual Vaughn gave her,” I said with a small smile.

“The artillery one?” Lexa almost gasped. “I can’t believe she thought that was a good idea.”

“If any of us is going to figure out how to make artillery or other exploding things, it’ll be Raven,” I nodded. My cousin had always liked things that went boom. The Fourth of July was her favorite holiday for a reason. “It could be a useful skill.”

With a sigh, Lexa turned to face the group again. She held out a hand and waited for me to intertwine our fingers before she started walking. We were slowly catching up to the others when she bumped me with her shoulder.

“You know Raven has already figured out the bomb thing right? She figured that out a couple of weeks ago.”

“Oh? So Vaughn has a plan for those?” I asked.

“Of course she does. General Griffin has a plan for everything. Including back-up plans for back-up plans,” Lexa laughed. “ _Nou get yu daun ai plangona._ (Don’t worry my woman warrior.) _Yu biga sis gada strat in._ (Your big sister has a plan.)”

“What are you saying?” I chuckled.

“It’s a new language Raven and I have been working on while we sit in the trees,” Lexa explained. “We call it Trigedasleng. We even set up this little zip-line thing so we could send notes back and forth to each other.”

“You’re creating a language?” I arched a brow at that. “Because Yiddish and Slovak aren’t enough for Raven? What a show-off.”

Shrugging, Lexa grinned, “We need something to do to pass the time since the raiders haven’t really tried to test us recently. Think of it was a new way to bother Vaughn.”

“So what have you worked out so far?” I asked.

“Well… beautiful is _meizen_ , mine is _ain_ , lover is _niron_ or _hodnes_ , my love is _ai hodnes_ , kiss is _smuch op_ ,” She leaned in and did just that, a loud smacking kiss to my cheek.

“Anything not to do with flattering me?” I arched a brow at her.

“Of course. Raven insisted on that,” Lexa nodded. At my silence she continued, “fuck is _jok_ , fucker is _joka_ , fucking is _joken_ , shit is _skrish_ , goddamn is _spichen_ – ”

“So you’ve come up with compliments and curse words?” I laughed loudly at that.

Lexa nodded, obviously proud she made me laugh when I’d just been so angry, “ _Ai hod yu in Klark_.”

“What’s that mean?” I asked, my voice mimicking hers and dropping to a whisper.

“That’s the first thing I came up with. It means ‘I love you Clarke’ and I do,” Lexa pressed a quick kiss to my lips.

“I love it when you say my name like that. In your Trig language.”

With a giggle, she rolled her eyes, “I say your name the same way no matter what language I use Clarke.”

“Oh yes, love it when you say my name _Meizen_ ,” I grinned and wiggled my brows. “ _Ai hod yu in_ too Lexa.”

“It’s ‘ _ai hod you in seintaim Leksa_ ’ Griffin,” Lexa sighed, like I’d insulted her.

“My bad,” I held up my free arm in surrender. “ _Ai hod yu in seintaim Leksa_.”

Lexa shuddered slightly beside me, “Okay, I see what you mean about saying your name a different way in Trig…”

“Clarke!” Raven’s yell pulled my attention away from Lexa before I could come up with a teasnig reply. She was running toward us, Harper at her side.

“Raven?” I hurried toward her, Lexa keeping pace next to me.

I caught Harper when she reached us. She was panting like she’d run the entire way from the house. Raven was bent over, her hands on her knees as she fought to even out her breathing. She had her left shoulder pressed into Lexa’s stomach, relying on my girlfriend to keep her upright for a minute or two. We motioned for the group to keep going, Nyko leading them away without an argument.

“Raven, what’s going on?” Lexa asked as she held out her canteen for Raven.

After taking a long pull from it, she handed it to Harper. Then she took one last deep breath and said, “Vaughn did it. They got more girls out.”

“Out where?” I asked.

“From Oak Openings,” Harper responded, her breathless voice made my chest ache in sympathy. “Like the plan.”

“What do you mean?” I questioned.

Raven only breathed deeply before turning to head toward the neighborhood, explaining as we started walking, “Four of them climbed the wall before Joey caught them. Ema Noss, Alyssa Tsan, and Ashlyn Lau were with them.”

At the names of three of our former classmates, I started jogging toward home. If they’d been in the compound they may have information on Octavia. They may know if any of our other classmates made it home.

“They said Zach Tenner and Carson Mako were with them when they were found by the raiders,” Harper added, already running even with me. “The boys were kept separate. They think they’re still at the RV dealership under guard because they didn’t go along with Pike’s plans.”

“I know it’s exciting that more of us made it home but do we have to run?” Raven grumbled from behind me somewhere.

“Pike and his idiot followers let something slip today,” I yelled over my shoulder as I pushed my legs to move faster. Lexa and Raven caught us easily, soon running beside Harper and me. “They said Octavia is alive and well in the compound.”

Raven stopped running at that. She was pale when I looked back, “What?”

“I know,” I hollered, refusing to stop moving. “They said she was pretty and limping from being shot. They said her name was Octavia.”

“Are you sure?” Harper asked. Her tone telling me she wanted to believe it was true but she wouldn’t let herself get her hopes up.

“I haven’t seen her during any of my watches but that doesn’t mean it isn’t true,” Lexa replied. “Raven!”

“I’m coming!” She started running again, catching up quickly. “You’re sure?”

I shook my head. I glanced over at my cousin and spotted the tears immediately, “I can’t be. I haven’t seen her. But there’s no way they would know that name or Octavia’s significance to us. They didn’t just toss out her name to get to me.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You know the drill! Come be friends! Leave a comment or a prompt. Just say hi! Whatever!
> 
> imaginaryhistorianme.tumblr.com


	16. Chapter 16

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The new compound is threatened. Clarke gets hurt. Bad things happen.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trigger warning: There is violence in this chapter. There is gun fire in this chapter. Someone gets shot. There are no deaths (to main characters anyway...)
> 
>  
> 
> I hope you enjoy!
> 
> Let me know what you think!

We started building up our fortifications as soon as we reached our neighborhood again. Vaughn was constantly sending out small groups to find whatever materials she thought could be useful. We scavenged more sheet metal, chain link fences, and more wood. We used anything that was strong and sturdy to make sure we were prepared for whatever Pike threw at us. Thankfully all he really sent our way were more empty threats. We ignored them all. After the first few times Josh or Chuck appeared with words scrawled out on dirty papers Vaughn ordered our guards to stop any and all outsiders well before they reached one of our gates, Josh learned the hard way to listen to their shouted orders after he came too close and ended up with a bullet in his arm. Eventually we only let them to get a hundred yards or so from the gates because Joey tried to snatch one of the girls who had escaped from Oak Openings.

As the days flew by Vaughn became more and more paranoid. She insisted on around-the-clock guards on the guard platforms built into our walls. Every time Pike sent a runner to demand Sophie’s return or deliver a message, Vaughn went into a whirlwind of preparations and fortifications. Because of the crazy schedule she kept us on it took us half the time to fortify our neighborhood as it had to secure Oak Openings.

People moved freely between the school campus, which we’d taken to calling The Institute so any eavesdroppers wouldn’t fully understand what we were talking about, and our neighborhood. Somehow it had worked out that most of the adults were in The Institute while the orphaned teenagers and their siblings ended up with us. Those of us who made it home from D.C., which was less than half of the number who’d left home for the fieldtrip, were too resistant to adults ordering them around. We called our new compound The Garrison because Vaughn tended to run things like we were in the military.

Days and weeks passed while we expanded our fortifications. We were able to build out our walls so we could have a protected area for crops and animals. Of course few of us really knew anything about farming. A few of the teenagers had been members of the agriculture class at school but they were by no means experts. The few adults and teenagers who knew a anything about plants suggested we plant corn, wheat, potatoes, tomatoes, and cucumbers. We followed their advice but we still planted all kinds of other things. Harper remembered reading about Native Americans planting corn, beans, and squash together because each plant helped the others.

The Institute raised sheep, pigs, cows, and even had a dozen alpacas and nearly two-dozen horses. It was just our luck that one of the random adults who sought refuge with us was a veterinarian who seemed to know too much about horses and breeding them. We kept our own horses at The Garrison, thirteen of them to be exact, and in nearby barns we found carriages and carts. Vaughn, Raven, Harper, Lexa, and I each had our own horse because we were always coming and going and making plans. Rob was offered one but he shook his head and moved away from the animal pretty quickly. My horse, a grey Connemara pony mare with a long grey mane and a broad white stripe down her nose, was docile but a hard worker. She never fought me when we were out riding. The animals and wheeled vehicles made our scavenging and scouting a lot easier and much faster. If it hadn’t been for the nearly constant harassment from the raiders, we could almost have forgotten about Oak Openings.

I tried over and over again to convince Vaughn and Nyko to meet with Pike to see if we could get Octavia back. They refused every time. We didn’t have anything to bargain with because we couldn’t send the girls back to the raiders. I knew Octavia would never agree to being traded for the girls but I needed her safely with our family and me again. So I pulled extra guard duty in the trees, hoping to catch just a glimpse of her. After days on end of not seeing any sign I almost managed to convince myself that Pike had been lying.

One day late in the summer I was on guard duty out in the fields. Ana, Gia, and some of the other girls along with a few boys were harvesting corn and wheat. A handful of young men were on guard duty with me. I was standing near Ana listening to her talk excitedly about the new bread recipe Sophie found in a survivalist cookbook Raven had brought home from one of her many scavenging trips.

Off in the distance something moved, catching my attention. I was lifting my rifle to look through my scope when a gunshot took me completely by surprise. We were inside the fence. There wasn’t any reason for anyone to fire a gun without warning. Our makeshift shooting range was on the other side of The Garrison. When I didn’t see anything through the scope, I certain someone was just fooling around or had accidently fired off a round. I swiveled my head one way and then the other, trying to figure out who had been so stupid but then one of the boys clutched his shoulder and fell to the ground. More gunshots followed before I could react.

I turned toward the source of the volleys, dropping to a knee in the process. I used my scope to search for the shooter but couldn’t see anything in the slowly waving wheat. Within minutes all but one of the boys who’d accompanied us were dead. The remaining boy was standing behind me, using a rifle he’d taken from one of the others. The empty shells from his gun were landing on me, burning my neck and shoulders before they fell to the ground. Ana was trying to calm the other girls when the shooters started sprinting toward us.

Raiders.

There were only a half dozen of them. I spotted Joey at the head of their little pack. I targeted him with my AR-15 and squeezed the trigger. I missed him by inches but the raider to his left went down. I started to squeeze again but instead I was forced to drop my gun when something hit me in the shoulder.

I glanced down to my left. The hilt of a knife was sticking out of me.

“Clarke!” Ana’s yell caught my attention.

I turned and saw her bent over the boy who had been behind me. She was holding her bunched up sweatshirt against his leg. I lurched that way, holding my rifle out with my right hand and firing sporadically. I dropped into a crouch in front of Ana and faced the raiders again.

I wasn’t even aiming anymore. I just wanted them to know I had firepower and I wasn’t worried about wasting ammunition. I could only hope that was enough to keep them back until help got to us.

Behind me I heard Ana yelp. Before I could turn to check on her, she assured me she was fine. A bullet had grazed her leg.

“Just get down!” I yelled.

“I have to help Frankie!” She was moving around, probably crouching over Frankie again, “Where’s Gia?”

“I’m here!” Gia’s voice rang out from my left. “Get down Clarke!”

“Take cover!” Frankie muttered, “I’m fine. It’s just my leg. Nothing major.”

“Frankie!” I whispered urgently, “Play dead. Wait until we’re gone, then get back to The Garrison and tell Vaughn what happened. Do you understand?”

“I got it Clarke,” Frankie grunted.

“Just keep firing! Help will be here soon!” Ana argued, trying to take my rifle from me.

“Not before they overrun us,” I replied.

I’m sure Ana tried to argue with me some more, but something thumped into my stomach followed quickly by something hitting me in the head and the world went black.

****

When I came to, I was in a bed. A big comfy bed with a canopy, like from a fairytale. I could hear someone moving around in the next room. I turned my head toward the sound. The pain that shot through my head brought tears to my eyes instantly.

“Hello?” I tried to call out but my voice was weak. I licked my dry lips and tried again, “Lexa?”

A door opened to my right. The voice I heard chilled me to my core.

“Welcome back Clarke,” Charles Pike leaned over me.

Ignoring the pounding in my head, I tried to scramble out of the bed but someone had tied me to the posts. Or rather tied my right wrist, which was secured with rope while my left arm was secured to my torso with medical bandages but my legs were free. I tried to bring a leg up far enough that I could kick Pike. My right leg was in a splint of some kind but the left was more than strong enough to kick out.

“Hold her legs,” He said calmly to someone I couldn’t see.

Hands grabbed the blankets spread over my legs and pulled them tight. I barely managed to swallow the yelp of pain that caused my right leg.

“Where am I?” I glared at Pike.

“I’ll answer your questions when you address me appropriately,” He replied.

I arched a brow and stared into his eyes. The man was the father of teenage daughters, he ought to know not to try to out-stubborn one, “You ought to know better Eddie.”

“Boss!” Joey barked. His face appeared above me too, “You call him Boss!”

“He isn’t my boss,” I replied. I shifted, trying to sit up. Having them hovering over me was disconcerting.

“I’m the boss when you’re inside my walls,” Pike put a hand on Joey’s shoulder, forcing him away from me.

I scoffed and shook my head, ignoring the pain. I managed to scoot back enough that I was sort of half sitting and half lying down, “I helped build those walls Pike. As far as I’m concerned, they will always be more my walls than they will ever be yours. You cold live here for the rest of your life and I’ll still call them mine.”

“I’m sure you’ve got all sorts of secrets about this place that you’ll be sharing with me,” Pike replied.

“I’m afraid I’m not telling you anything. But at least you told me where I am,” I shifted more, trying to avoid putting any pressure on left arm, “How long have I been out?”

Pike seemed to consider his answer, like he was seriously considering not telling me anything. Finally he waved his hand and his lapdogs left the room. He sat on the edge of the bed and put a hand on my leg. His movements reminded me so much of my father that I turned my head away.

“Clarke. I’m not a bad guy. I don’t want to hurt you or your people.”

“You killed hundreds of my people when you took this place from us. You killed Aunt Callie. You killed Ava and Elle. You killed Mack and Thad. You killed Mr. Thornton,” I contended. “You’ve hurt Octavia. You don’t get to claim the good guy card Charles. Not with me.”

“We just want to be safe,” Pike replied.

“You want to be safe but you weren’t willing to put in the work to be safe. You wanted safety immediately. So you took it,” I snapped. I jerked my head toward the window, “You haven’t planted a single thing. You haven’t gathered a single berry. You think the stores you and your people stole from us will last you through the winter? You’re lazy and entitled and, in The Now, that’s a deadly combination.”

“Clarke,” he sighed and chuckled like he thought I was just being a dramatic teenager. “You’ll understand when you’re older.”

I shook my head, “Don’t try to play this off like I’m being irrational or something. You took what we built without any remorse.”

Pike tried to explain his side of the story again and again. Each time I refused to listen. Eventually every time he’d begin to defend his people taking Oak Openings I just started listing the people that he and his men had killed.

“You won’t even try to listen to reason?” Pike finally sighed. When I continued to glare as he reached for my shoulder slowly. I’d forgotten about the knife wound until he started squeezing it, “Are you sure you won’t listen?”

“There was no reason for you to do what you did,” I said through my teeth as I fought back tears, “Now how long have I been here?”

“Five days,” He said quietly, letting go of my shoulder. My jaw dropped. What had happened to me? Why had I been unconscious for five days? He must have seen the panic because he rushed to reassure me, “You’re fine Clarke. I’ve even let that doctor friend of yours in here every day to look you over. You’re staying in the guest room of my cabin. No harm will come to you while you’re here.”

“While I’m in your cabin or while I’m in Oak Openings?” I asked quietly.

“Excuse me?” That got him to stand up.

“Well, I’m a prime right? _The_ _Prime_ according to Joey. Capitol ‘p’ and all of that. So have I been claimed yet?”

Pike shook his head. He glanced toward the door before he quietly answered me, “I don’t think we need to discuss that right now.”

“I think now is the perfect time to discuss it. How long until I’m claimed?”

“You don’t understand our way but it will make sense once I explain it all,” Pike said, “We do what we need to do so we can survive.”

After shifting around some more I was finally sitting upright in the bed, “Just because you think your people have the right to survive doesn’t automatically mean you get to.”

“Our people need kids. They bring hope.”

“So you lock up your own daughter and steal other girls?” I roll my eyes at that logic. “You’ve become a glorified pimp. And the worst part about all of it is that you’re proud of it. You can’t provide for the mouths you’ve got depending on you now but you brag about the ability to bring more into the world. Innocent little mouths that need food and love, not boasting and thieving fathers who like to hurt people.”

“I’m just trying to give my people hope,” Pike insisted. “I needed to find us land! We needed resources. So we found them! This is all ours now!”

“So teach your people to survive! Teach them to farm. Teach them to hunt. Don’t teach them to steal and kidnap people!”

“You think this bunch of lawyers and waitresses know anything about farming?” Pike stalked up to the side of the bed.

“Do you think my family is going to consent to your constantly taking from us?” I arched my brow.

Pike paused. A sickening smile stretched across his sweaty face, “I don’t think there’s anything they can do about it.”

“Shows what you know,” I scoffed.

“Well you see, I sent a messenger to that girlfriend of yours through your doctor. If they try anything, I’ll hurt you. A lot,” Pike smiled. His eyes slid over me. I honestly couldn’t tell if he was leering or trying to figure out the fastest way to bring me to tears, “Now I’ve got you and your cousins and Octavia. What do you friends have?”

“Other than your daughter?” I narrowed my eyes, slightly satisfied when I saw his back straighten. I wanted to believe he was bluffing but somehow I knew he wasn’t, “Hurt me how?”

“I think the first thing I promised to have delivered to your little girlfriend was your ring finger. She may want her ring back.”

“If you touch me or my claddagh, Lexa will end you.”

Pike chortled at my threat, “She can’t get anywhere near me. And they can’t blockade us anymore. Not unless they want you to suffer. You and those girls we rescued with you.”

I could only stare at the man. He’d really gone off the deep end. After a minute, our eyes never breaking contact, I shook my head slowly, “I changed my mind.”

“So you see the wisdom of our program,” Pike grinned down at me.

“No. That’s not what I meant. Your program is gross and predatory and beyond misogynistic,” I replied. Then I allowed a slow smirk to form on my lips, “I meant I hope my friends comply with your demands for now.”

“And why is that?”

I leaned forward as much as I could in my prone position, staring into his eyes, trying to send waves of conviction at him. I wanted him to know how absolutely serious I was. It was hard to be threatening when I was tied to a bed with a knife wound to my shoulder, “I hope they go along with it because I think I’d like to kill you myself.”

Pike laughed, “With what? Your glare?”

“I haven’t decided yet,” I responded casually. “But please don’t doubt me. I will be the one to end your life if I have my way.”

****

Pike and I argued for what felt like hours. He wanted me to admit his program for young women was an ingenious way to make sure genetic integrity was preserved. I wanted him to admit he was crazy. Somehow he actually seemed shocked when we found ourselves at an impasse. He would go over his plans and tell me how proud most of the primes were. I would tell him he was crazy and repulsive before demanding to see Octavia.

A knock at the door interrupted Pike’s thousandth time through the structure of his program. He opened it to reveal Nyko.

“Finally!” I struggled to sit up in bed again, forgetting that my earlier attempts had failed and that my left arm was tied to my stomach and the need to not put pressure on either of those body parts. I collapsed in the bed with a yelp, curling onto my right side after I tried to shift my weight to my hand and the pull on my shoulder sent a blinding pain through me.

“Clarke!” Nyko rushed to my side.

He rolled me onto my back and pulled the collar of my shirt aside to study the stitches holding my flesh together. After a minute or two he nudged me onto my right side so he could look at the stitches in my back. Then, to my surprise he moved to block Pike’s view of me and lowered the blankets.

“What are you doing?” I whispered.

“I need to check the bullet wounds,” Nyko replied.

“What bullet wounds?” I questioned.

The only pain I’d felt had radiated from my shoulder until the dumb sitting up move a few moments before. As soon as he mentioned other injuries, I felt dull aches in my abdomen, right thigh, and right calf as well.

“My men got you a few more times then they should have,” Pike sounded annoyed.

“Worried that your Prime is damaged now?” I snapped.

“Don’t want good material going to waste,” Pike shot back. “Lucky for you my men like scars on their women.”

I was getting to him. I’d been trying to get him to slip up and reveal more than he wanted to all day. I was finally getting somewhere.

Nyko poking at my leg forced my attention off Pike. The doctor had barely finished looking at my calf when Pike grabbed his shoulder and pulled him to his feet.

“You tell Vaughn Griffin if she wants her sister back in one piece, she’ll give me my daughter,” He forced Nyko toward the door.

“You know Vaughn won’t force Sophie to leave. Not when she doesn’t want to be here,” Nyko tried to reason.

“I won’t put her back in the cabin with the others. She can stay here with me,” Pike informed him.

Nyko shook his head, “If she thinks you’ll force her to be part of your breeding program, Sophie won’t come back,”

“She’s my daughter! I’ll keep her safe,” Pike roared. He shoved Nyko against the closed door.

“You’ll want to think very carefully about your next move Charles,” Nyko’s voice dropped. He was practically growling through his teeth, “I don’t like being shoved around.”

“I don’t like being separated from my daughter!” Pike snapped back.

“I won’t force Vaughn’s hand. If Vaughn and Sophie both say no, then the answer is no,” Nyko said.

Pike glared hard into Nyko’s eyes. Finally he sighed and shook his head, like he knew he wasn’t going to get anywhere, “So how are Clarke’s wounds then?”

“They’re okay. The stitches will probably be ready to come out in a few days. As long as her wounds don’t get infected she’ll be fine,” Nyko replied.

“Good,” Pike seemed thrilled with the news, “You are no longer needed here then. Don’t come back, you won’t be welcome.”

“Hey!” Nyko tried to fight his way back to me but Joey was there to grab him, “You said I could see Octavia if I helped! Where is she?”

“Nyko! Tell Lexa I’m okay! Don’t let her be dumb!” I yelled. I sat up in the bed and looked out the door. I caught a glimpse of Raven and Harper behind the struggling Joey and Nyko, “Tell her!”

Raven nodded and Harper smiled. I could only hope they understood my shouts and what I meant.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Come say hello! I promise I'm friendly!
> 
> imaginaryhistorianme.tumblr.com


	17. Chapter 17

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Clarke is moved into the Prime cabin. She meets some old friends and makes a new enemy.

A few days later the giantess, who turned out to be not as unpleasant as I’d once thought and was named Bonnie, removed my stitches. When Pike left us alone she admitted she’d been an ER doctor in The Before, Pike didn’t know. Once my stitches were gone and Bonnie cleared me I was moved into the prime cabin. I’d heard the men discussing the cabin with smug happiness in their voices. I heard one of them talking about wanting to claim a new girl, one who sounded an awful lot like Ana from the way he described her.

I limped into my old cabin with the help of a crutch. Gia and Ana met me at the door, almost tackling me in their excitement.

“Finally!” Ana said.

“I was so worried!” Gia cried. She burrowed her head against my shoulder, causing the freshly healed skin to pull a little.

I studied my cousins carefully, “You’re okay?”

They both nodded. Ana took my hand and led me through the cabin. They didn’t stop pulling on me until we reached my old bedroom.

“So this is the PC?” I used the nickname the locals had given the cabin.

I looked around as if I wanted to familiarize myself with the cabin I’d need to escape from soon. I studied the walls and the window, which had been nailed shut, and the door.

“One of the other girls from the compound mentioned the cabin to the guy who had claimed her. Pike apparently thought you’d enjoy being home again,” Gia explained. “They’d moved the primes to a different cabin after our escape. We got moved back just so Pike could mess with you.”

“I’m going to kill that man,” I growled.

“Gia,” Ana said quietly. She motioned toward the door and murmured, “Go get her.”

Without asking for clarification, Gia ran back through the door. Ana sat on my old bed and patted the spot next to her.

“The other girls left this room for you and me and Gia to share. They know this was your home,” She said softly.

I sat next to her, taking her hand in mine and studying her closely. Her face was thinner than I remember it being. Her black hair was much shorter than it had been just a week before and there were dark circles under her brown eyes, which were red, like she’d been crying a lot, “Ana.”

“I’m fine Clarke,” She said before I could say anything else.

“You’ve been claimed,” It wasn’t a question.

She shrugged, “Yes and no.”

“What does that mean?”

“I’ve got a guy who comes to see me but doesn’t try to make me do anything,”

My jaw clenched. I wanted to kill any man who thought it was okay to try to use any girl, let alone my cousin, as property, “What’s his name? I’ll add him to my list.”

“It’s fine Clarke. I’m fine.”

“Name. Now.”

“Billy. Billy Redding,” Ana smirked as she answered.

“Your cousin?” I didn’t know if I ought to laugh or cry. Billy was my age, I’d grown up with the kid, “How did he end up with the raiders?”

“They found him during a raid and forced him to join them,” Ana explained. “He helped us escape last time. He and –”

Whatever she’d been about to say was cut off by the door bursting open again. Gia reappeared, dragging someone behind her. As soon as I saw the girl I was on my feet.

“You!” I stared at her.

“Me!” She smiled. It didn’t come close to reaching her eyes though.

“Clarke, this is Moira,” Ana said from behind me.

Gia looked from me to Moira to Ana, “You’ve met?”

I didn’t know what to think. Moira was the girl from the bookstore. Moira was the girl I’d seen watch in horror as our dead were burned in the fire.

“She was at the bookstore,” I said quietly.

The girl giggled, “you mean the bookstore where you stared at me for so long I thought I was going to pass out because I was holding my breath?”

“I thought you were dead. How was I supposed to know you were just holding your breath?” I asked.

“Moira is Sophie’s little sister,” Gia cut in before Moira could reply. The resemblance was uncanny really, now that I knew they were sisters. Moira was a mini-Sophie. “Pike just put her in here a few days ago.”

“You’re kidding?” I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. Pike had sworn up and down that he’d keep Sophie safe and sound if she came home but then he put Moira in here? “Please tell me you’re joking.”

“Thank you for your help that day. I’m sorry for what happened here,” Moira ignored my pleas. “Although I did want to hurt you in the bookstore. Just so we’re clear. It hurt to hold my breath for so long!”

“You tried to tell me something that day, in the bookstore,” I said.

“The guns were empty. We don’t have much ammunition so Dad only sends empty guns on those missions,” Moira explained.

I groaned. If Vaughn knew that information she’d invade this compound without a second thought. I needed to get a message to my sister.

“Why didn’t Sophie tell us?” I asked.

“Soph doesn’t know. She never got to go out on with the scavengers. She’s always been in PC,” Moira shrugged as she explained. “I wasn’t allowed to visit her either. Dad… I mean Boss said I was too young and wouldn’t understand what was happening.”

The four of us sat in my old bedroom for the rest of the day while Moira explained everything she could about the raiders. She clarified their order of command, Pike first followed by Mark and Brad, then Chuck, then Joey, Josh, and someone named Zeke. She explained the way the PC worked. A man could claim a girl for up to three months, then she was to be left alone for two months so the healers could tell if she was pregnant. Girls got put in the BC, which meant breeder’s cabin, as soon as they bled the first time. She even explained how the hierarchy worked in the PC and BC worked. She claimed a girl named Ontari was in charge of the girls in PC. Ana snorted and said I’d be in charge as soon as Ontari tried to tell me what to do. Basically, whoever was in charge divided up the chores and, unofficially, reported things to Pike.

A knock on the door interrupted our conversation. A girl opened the door and poked her head in.

“Did I say you could come in?” I asked. I didn’t like people being in my cabin let alone in my room and I really didn’t like being interrupted.

“Ontari sent me,” She replied, her eyes on the floor.

“You can tell Ontari if she wants to talk to me she can come and see me,” I replied, my voice a little more harsh than I’d meant for it to be. “And make sure you tell her to wait for the invitation before she enters my room.”

“Maybe challenging Ontari isn’t such a good idea,” Gia warned. Anger had her dark eyes appearing to be black. They were easily the darkest I’d ever seen them. “Not while you’re injured. You’re still recovering from being shot!”

“And stabbed,” Ana added.

“The sooner this girl learns not to order me around, the happier we’ll all be,” I replied. I had no intention of toeing any lines while I was held captive. I wouldn’t sit by idly and wait for the others to rescue me. “I don’t want to have to deal with an annoying power struggle when I should be concentrating on figuring out how to get us out of here. We can’t wait for Vaughn and Lexa and Raven and Harper to figure this out. There are no damsels anymore!”

The door flew open. A girl I could only assume was Ontari stood in the opening. She didn’t look like much. She barely a couple of inches above five feet and weighed maybe a hundred pounds soaking wet.

“You don’t order me around!” She snapped as she marched toward me.

“Ditto,” I replied, arching a brow.

I motioned for the others to get behind me. Since Ontari was obviously smaller than most of the girls in the cabin there must have been a reason the others feared her so much. Even Ana was quick to move behind me.

“If I send for you, you come running,” Ontari said.

I shook my head and laughed, “That will never happen.”

“You come running,” Ontari bit out each word.

“No,” I smiled sweetly.

“I didn’t say it was optional.”

The only way I could avoid a childlike spat with this girl was to tell her exactly how I was going to behave. She could like it or she could hate it but I wasn’t planning on changing my plans to fit her needs.

“Listen, Ontari, I get that you’ve been in charge here for a while and I’m not saying you aren’t in charge. I’m just saying I’m not going to answer to you.”

“You do answer to me. Everyone in this house answers to me,” Ontari puffed up.

“No, see…” I sighed. This girl was like a pit bull; she had an idea of how she wanted things to be and really didn’t want to let it go, “First, this is a cabin, one that I built with my girlfriend and my friends. You’re never going to tell me what to do when I’m in this cabin and expect me to listen. Second, I don’t have time to do the whole beck-and-call thing with you. I have other things to worry about. So you do you and I’ll do me and if we can just coexist then that would be fantastic.”

“When I send for you, you come running. That would be fantastic,” Ontari said.

“You’re like a broken record,” I rubbed my forehead and sighed. “I’m not going to continue this discussion if you don’t have anything new to add to it. See yourself out please.”

Apparently dismissing Ontari was the wrong thing to do. She launched herself across the room and tackled me to the floor. I would have laughed if I hadn’t been shocked.

Her fist connected with my jaw, then her other fist caught me in the ear. She pulled back her hands again, ready to swing some more, but I shifted underneath her and knocked her off balance. We became a wrecking ball. One of us would tackle the other, fists were flying, feet were kicking, hair was being pulled and I’m fairly certain she bit me a couple of times.

Finally, she ended up in front of me on her knees. I whacked her in the face with a knee, sending her flying backwards. I scrambled behind her and forced her into a headlock. Holding onto Ontari, I dragged her from my bedroom and into the living room. Using her own weight against her I swung her onto the floor in front of the couch I’d taken from Lexa’s neighbor’s house.

“I don’t answer to you,” I panted and fought a grimace. My aches and pains had disappeared while I’d been wrestling with her. Now that I was standing over her, the pain was back full force. “I don’t answer to any of you. I answer to me. You will respect that. And you will leave Ana, Gia, and Moira alone.”

Ontari opened her mouth to say something but all that came out was a grunt followed by a whimper. I nodded, certain my point had been made, and tossed her away from me. Some of the other girls rushed to her side and helped her onto the couch. One of the small girls, smaller than Ontari even, appeared out of nowhere with a damp washcloth for Ontari to clean her face up with.

“Now that we’ve reached that understanding, what did you want to talk to me about?” I asked.

Ontari wiped her face several times with the cloth. Then she held it against her lower lip, which had been split open during our tussle. Finally, once she’d stopped the bleeding she glanced at me. I almost felt bad for causing her right eye to swell almost completely shut. She took a shaky breath, “You’ve been claimed.”

“Excuse me?” I arched a brow. I hadn’t been out of Pike’s cabin for half a day and I’d already been claimed?

“You heard me. I received word right after you got here,” Ontari pulled the cloth away and stared at the blood.

Ana fought her way through the crowd to my side. She handed me my crutch and latched onto my hand, squeezing tightly as she asked, “Who claimed her?”

“Charlie Abernathy.”

My jaw dropped, “You have got to be kidding me!”

“That doesn’t follow the rules!” One of the other girls whined.

The others were talking amongst themselves. Most seemed to be complaining that I’d snared such an eligible guy, like I ought to be honored by his claim.

“You all remember the old ways right? In The Before? Back when women were almost equals to men?” I shook my head. It had taken less than two years for these young women and teenaged girls to forget they were people too apparently. “I’m not any man’s property. None of us are. They are holding us prisoner. They are not taking care of us. They are not saving us. They only see us as objects that can bear them children. Aren’t you more than that? Don’t you remember being more than that?”

“They make sure no one hurts us,” Someone in the back of the crowd said.

“They make sure we have food,” Someone else added.

“You can make sure no one hurts you. You can get your own food. Allowing yourself to fall back into the roles women held a millennia ago isn’t helping anyone,” I replied and rolled my eyes. “Seriously, I’ve been doing it all for myself the last two years. I helped build this cabin!”

“I just want to be safe,” A small voice flowed above the others.

“So keep yourself safe. And keep each other safe. Don’t whine when some guy says he wants to claim some other girl. Being claimed should make you angry. When did you go from being a girl to being a commodity?” All I could think about while those girls complained about just wanting safety and food were the women I’d read about in history class. If only suffragists and suffragettes could have seen those girls that day.

Before anyone could answer a girl shrieked, “he’s coming!”

Like cockroaches fleeing light the girls scattered. Soon it was just me, my cousins, and Ontari left in the living room.

“What just happened?” I asked slowly.

“Charlie’s on his way to see you,” Ontari explained. She stood and stretched a little. I allowed myself a small smirk at her grimace of discomfort. “According to our rules, only the girl expecting a visitor can answer the door. She gets one escort while in the house.”

“Okay then. You can go,” I dismissed her offhandedly. “Gia and Ana will stay with me.”

“I said only the claimed one,” Ontari retorted.

“And I said I don’t answer to you,” I snapped. “Stay out of my room.”

Moments after Ontari disappeared into Harper’s old room there was a knock on the door. Ana nudged me forward, forcing me closer to the door. Gia stepped forward and put my hand on the handle.

“Thanks guys,” I rolled my eyes.

After Chuck knocked again I opened the door. He looked different from the day on the bridge. Maybe because there wasn’t fear in his blue eyes since we were on what he probably considered his turf now.

Before I say anything he held out his hand smiled. When I took his hand he pulled me out of the cabin.

“See you later girls,” he smiled and winked at Ana and Gia.

We walked in silence, Chuck guiding me through the compound with a hand on the small of my back. We walked to the opposite side of the enclosure, finding a bench near the lake where we sat in silence for a little while. I didn’t know what he was expecting but I knew that if I tried to get away from him Pike would make sure I regretted it. Not to mention I couldn’t have gotten far without the crutch.

Finally I couldn’t stand the silence anymore, “So…”

“Yes?” Chuck seemed relieved that I’d spoken, like he hadn’t been able to think of anything to say to me.

“You’ve claimed me?” I closed my eyes when I had to say the words. They sounded archaic and coarse to my ears.

“Yeah. I guess you could say that,” Chuck rubbed the back of his neck. “Do you know how all that works?”

“I know it means no other man is supposed to touch me.”

“It means I get you to myself exclusively for three months, then you’ll be left alone for two months to see if… anything will happen,” He explained, a blush spreading up his cheeks and turning his ears fire engine red.

I shook my head but that didn’t seem like enough of a denial so I said, “You’ve got to know I’m not going to have sex with you.”

“Of course not!” Chuck held up his hands and leaned away from me.

While I appreciated that, his reaction was a little insulting, “Then why are you here?”

“So we can plan your escape,” Chuck replied cautiously, like I should have known.

“Excuse me?” I blinked a few times. I was sure I’d misheard.

“They don’t know that I know you,” He shrugged.

I didn’t know how to respond to that. I couldn’t really see the advantages in the raiders being ignorant about my knowing Chuck. “What does that have to do with any of this?”

“This way I can get you out. Like I did with Ana and Gia.”

“I thought Billy helped them with that. It was both of you?” The two men helping the girls made more sense than just Billy. But Chuck helping my cousins out didn’t make sense because he didn’t know them, “You have to get us all out then. Including Octavia.”

“How do you know Octavia is here?”

“Pike told us. He thought he could use Octavia as leverage to get Sophie back,” I said. I snarled at the very thought of that man before asking the questions that had plagued me for so long. “Have you seen her? Is she okay?”

Chuck nodded, “as okay as she can be. She was shot in the lower part of her right leg. The bullet tore through her muscle. It was pretty touch and go for a while.”

“But she can walk?” I probed.

“She can limp for the time being,” Chuck shrugged. “She’s getting better though.”

“We have to get her out of here. Maybe Nyko can help,” I muttered, the wheels in my brain already turning.

“That will take time.”

I glanced around at the emptiness, “I think we’ve got plenty of that.”

“It’s funny that you should mention Octavia though,” Chuck said, poking me in the shoulder.

“Why?”

“Seven o’clock,” He replied and smiled.

Why was he talking about a clock? I hadn’t seen a working clock in nearly two years. Confused by his gently smug face I questioned, “What?”

With an exaggerated roll of his eyes Chuck pointed over my shoulder, “Look behind you Clarke.”

Shooting one more confused look at him, I glanced behind me. Honestly, describing the sound that tore its way out of my throat would be next to impossible. It was something like a gasp with a dash of a shriek and a good helping of a yelp.

“Octavia!” I struggled to my feet. My right arm suddenly felt incapable of grasping my crutch and my feet absolutely refused to move in sync with one another.

“Hey Clarkey!” She grinned as she limped closer.

As much as I wanted to throw myself in her arms, which were open and waiting for me like they always were when we said hello, I couldn’t. I was frozen. I’d been told she was alive. She had been used as a pawn in Pike’s demented plans and threats. I’d hope it was all true though, that she was alive and, for the most part, healthy. Part of me though… part of me thought Pike and the others had made it up. That they’d somehow found out the name of my dead best friend and had decided to use it against me.

“We need to move,” Chuck whispered close to my ear. “The others don’t want you meeting with her. They want leverage and they think if they don’t let you talk to her, you’ll cave eventually. No one can see you together.”

“Where to?” Octavia asked, stopping just in front of me.

“Up the light blue trail a ways,” Chuck indicted the path he meant, pointing at the small blue circle on a nearby post. He helped me with my crutch, straightening it for me, before turning and leading the way.

“Octavia?” I glanced up. I wasn’t convinced I was really seeing her.

“I’m here Clarke,” she nodded. Her hand found the small of my back, urging me to follow Chuck.

I didn’t want to look away. If I did… my best friend might disappear again. I knew I couldn’t take that pain again. My injured leg catching on a tree root forced my eyes away though. Octavia’s hands caught me around my stomach just before I hit the ground.

“Clarke, its okay,” she said quietly. Lowering me the rest of the way to the ground and helping me to sit as comfortably as possible, she grinned. “You’re okay?”

“I’m fine.”

“You were shot. More than once from what Chuck was able to find out,” Octavia’s eyes studied me.

She was looking for wounds. New scars. Signs she hadn’t been around to protect me. She wouldn’t find any. The jeans and t-shirt I was wearing covered my newest trophies.

“Octavia Blake,” I said.

I felt my lips wobble and my eyes flood with tears. She was there in front of me. I’d felt her catch me after my stumble but I hadn’t touched her yet. Until I did, I couldn’t convince myself it wasn’t all a dream brought on by trauma and a lack of sleep. So I did. I placed a hand on her cheek. Her eyes lit up with laughter, like she knew exactly why I was cupping her face.

“I’m real Clarkey,” she murmured.

“You were dead,” I sniffled.

She offered a wobbly smile and shook her head, “No, just a little shot.”

I blinked at that, “A little shot? Are there levels to being shot that I don’t know about? What level am I?”

“Sure. In the leg is a little shot, in the chest is a lot shot, in the head is totally shot,” Octavia smirked. She was using her wise-woman tone, the one she used whenever she was schooling me in fashion or sports or politics.

I groaned at her weak attempt of a joke, “You are definitely here. My imagination isn’t that lame.”

That’s when she threw her arms around me. She laughed while I cried and then cried while I laughed. Octavia was alive! She was really sitting on that path with me while we sobbed all over each other. We’d just calmed our breathing when Chuck appeared again.

“I’m sorry guys,” he said. “We have to go Clarke. I’ve had you out here for a while. We don’t want anyone to get suspicious and come looking for us.”

“Why would anyone get suspicious if you’ve claimed her?” Octavia questioned.

“I’ve been a pretty vocal opponent of the whole ‘Prime Program’ of course,” I explained. At Octavia’s narrowed eyes, I shrugged, “Pike knows about me and Lexa too. He has to know I wouldn’t just drop Lexa.”

“She wouldn’t suddenly throw herself at me after everything she’s said and done the last few months,” Chuck added. Then he smiled at us, “no matter how cute I am.”

Octavia sighed and glanced at me, “you really can’t make anything easy can you Griffin?”

“I like drama,” I said with a shrug.

“We got shot. That isn’t enough drama?” Octavia quirked a brow.

“Nope,” I replied, making sure to pop the ‘p’ loudly. “What we need is a good, old fashioned prison break. Now that is dramatic!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You know the drill! Let's be friends!
> 
> I love comments and prompts! I like being talked to. It's my thing. So come and say hi!
> 
> imaginaryhistorianme.tumblr.com


	18. Chapter 18

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Clarke has a bit of a confrontation with an enemy and a bit of a tussle with a frenemy.
> 
> Lexa delivers a message.

The Prime Cabin, PC for short, wasn’t a horrible place to live really. Not once I was used to the other girls anyway. For the most part, they left me alone. By extension they left Ana, Gia, and Moira alone too. After another round or two of wrestling Ontari accepted my position on not following her orders. She was never happy about it but she didn’t try to bend me to her will. It worked out better for the both of us that way.

After a few weeks in the cabin, I got used to Chuck’s almost daily visits. The other girls would scamper away every time there was a knock on the door. I always made my way to the living room, forcing those men who had come to claim a young woman against her will to look me in the eye. I was equally angry with those men, whether they met my eyes or not didn’t matter. I’d brought more than one of them to the edge of fury by asking what their mother or sisters would think of their behavior.

That was what Ontari and I had fought about the second time. She’d been claimed by Joey. When Joey had stepped into my cabin I lost my mind a little. I launched myself at him, scratching at his face and punching at his chest. It took Ontari and Ana and Gia to pull me off. I could tell by the quick glimpse I got of Joey’s face before he ran away that he’d likely have a few new scars to add to the one Vaughn had given him.

“What the hell was that?” Ontari shoved me toward my room.

“Why would you let that heathen touch you?” I demanded. I didn’t like the girl, not at all, but she rated better than Joey. “I know you think you’re doing this to survive but we all deserve more than that right? We deserve lives that are as full as we can make them?”

I didn’t see the fist coming until it practically in my eye.

“You’ve just made all of our lives that much harder!” Ontari roared and tackled me.

“I stopped him from forcing himself on you! I was helping!” I shouted back, my hands grabbing at her shirt and trying to pull her off me.

“He’s Boss’s right hand goon you idiot!” Ontari punched again, connecting with my eye solidly. “We’re all going to get punished for that!”

“Oh please, Pike will know it was me,” I huffed and shoved her. I managed to jerk my head to the side to avoid another fist in my eye. “Nothing will happen. We’ll all be okay.”

Ontari shook her head and threw another jab, “Joey will make sure something happens to get us back without Boss knowing! He’ll make sure our food gets dropped in the mud or that our water has tadpoles or something.”

“Then I’ll hit him again. He has to learn eventually!” I finally managed to connect a fist to the side of her head, knocking her sideways and off of me.

Ana and Gia stood between us, ready to wrestle us away from each other if needed. Instead, Ontari glared at me while she panted. I could only shrug at her menacing look. I couldn’t apologize because I wasn’t sorry.

“Joey will get you back for this,” Ontari hissed before she stormed to the back of cabin and slammed a door.

A knock interrupted the glaring contest my cousins were attempting to have with me. I glanced from them to the door and back again.

“Is someone else expecting a man?” I asked.

“Clarke!” Chuck’s voice drifted into the cabin.

Ana moved to the door and unlocked it, allowing Chuck to enter the cabin. He had a frown on his face, letting me know he’d already heard about my run in with Joey. He took in the state of the room, the furniture knocked aside and up ended, and my already swelling eye.

“Was it necessary?” His question was barely more than a sigh.

“That man-child is not stepping foot in my cabin! Ever!” I snapped.

“Well Boss is pissed,” Chuck replied.

Rolling my good eye, I snorted, “Like I care.”

“Maybe you ought to care Clarke. You’ve been here for three weeks now. I only have five weeks left on my claim. I don’t think Boss is above bending the rules if he thinks it’ll teach you a lesson,” Chuck spoke quietly but there was still a little bit of venom in his voice. “And right now, he’s going to love the fact that you look like you just went twelve rounds in the ring and lost.”

“Why?” Gia inquired.

“Because Nyko and the others are on their way here. Boss told them to come and visit with you three,” Chuck explained. “Lexa and Raven are supposed to be with him.

I was by the door before he finished speaking. I had it half opened before Chuck forced it closed again.

“What are you doing?” I growled.

“Boss said you have to stay here. He wanted me to tell you about the visitors and to make sure you knew Lexa is going to be here soon. But since you ‘attacked one of the finest soldiers in camp’ you aren’t permitted to leave the cabin for three days,” Chuck said. He held the door shut when I tried to pull it open again. “I can’t let you go out there Clarke. They’ll think I can’t control you and that means they’ll seek to nullify my claim. We can’t have that. We’ve worked too hard to plan your escape to ruin it now.”

“But Lexa – ” I started to argue.

“Will be fine,” Ana finished my sentence. “I’ll make sure to let her know what happened. She’ll understand.”

Gia nodded, stepping to my side and pulling my hand away from the door. She led me to the bedroom and sat me on the edge of the bed. I felt sort of numb. Tingly. Knowing Lexa was going to be close by, close enough that I’d be able to see her green eyes again for the first time in over a month, and I wasn’t going to actually be in her presence was horrible. I threw myself back on the bed and listened to Ana and Gia talk with Moira before they left with Chuck.

“Are you okay?” Moira asked quietly.

“No,” I replied. I was in the bed, curled up on my side and hugging a pillow.

“Gia said Lexa will understand. And that she’ll try to talk to Vaughn about Sophie too,” Moira said.

“I hope she can get a message to Sophie for you M,” I sniffled. I ached with the knowledge that Lexa was only a few hundred yards away, down twisting paths between cabins, and I was stuck inside.

Moira climbed on the bed and settled back against the headboard. She patted my shoulder a few times, offering a little comfort, before clearing her throat, “I’m sorry you can’t see Lexa and Vaughn and the others but I’m not sorry you finally got to put Joey in his place.”

“A lot of good it did me,” I scoffed at the pride in her voice.

“He was momentarily reminded that he isn’t some sort of demigod walking against mortals,” Moira replied. I could hear pages being flipped before she sighed and settled further down in the bed.

Glancing over my shoulder I could see her holding a book over her face, “You’re reading about mythology again aren’t you?”

“Well I’m sorry,” She glanced at me quickly before returning her attention to the text. She turned a page and continued, “the previous owner only had a few books on hand you know. What a heathen.”

****

The meeting had been a stalemate, as always, the girls informed me when they came home. Or nearly a stalemate. Pike had allowed Nyko to examine Octavia’s leg. Then he let Octavia talk to our friends before they left.

“Pike made the same demands as always,” Ana said as we settled down to bed that night.

“He wants Sophie back. He wants any girl who didn’t originally live in Oak Openings back. He wants Vaughn to give them half the armory,” Gia rattled off the list of idiotic things Pike always asked for when Vaughn or Nyko came to the compound.

“At least he let you talk to Vaughn,” Moira said. She fluffed her pillow and yawned. “Now Sophie will know I’m safe. Or… you know, as safe as I can be.”

Ana smiled at the younger girl, “I was surprised by that. I think he thought it would soften Vaughn up. What an idiot.”

“Vaughn said Aden has been taking care of you horse. He says you won’t be happy when you get home if you find out someone didn’t brush her every day,” Gia said.

“And that he’s been practicing with the bow Raven made him. He can’t pull the string very far but he tries every day. Lexa helps him. He wants to be able to hit the bulls-eye so you can be proud of him,” Ana added. She slid under the covers and pulled the blankets to her chin. “Oh! And Vaughn said Aden helped her track deer the other day. They must have gone ten miles from The Garrison before they managed to take it down. Then he helped field dress it!”

“I like that kid. He’s like a mini-Rambo or something,” Gia said before she yawned and smacked her lips.

Moira started asking questions about The Garrison and the people there. She knew we were planning on escaping soon and was thrilled to know there would be new people to get to know. Not to mention her older sister being around again. So Moira and Gia giggled and talked some more about what had transpired at the meeting before finishing their gossip session with talk of our home. I waited patiently, lying on my left side, facing Ana while the two younger girls gossiped. Eventually they fell asleep, leaving me alone with Ana.

“How was she?” I whispered.

“She didn’t look good Clarke. Not at all,” Ana replied almost inaudibly.

I sniffled and fought the familiar burning of my eyes. I reached out and grasped my cousin’s hand, needing to feel someone else close to me for a moment. Poor Lexa. She was stuck out there with Vaughn and Rob without me to protect her. I knew she had Harper and Raven to lean on but… it wasn’t the same.

“She said you need to hurry up and get back already. That you’re being dramatic as always,” Ana chuckled and allowed me to lace our fingers together.

“I love her,” I closed my eyes tightly. “I hate being here. I hate having to walk around with Chuck and pretending to be interesting in anything anyone says to me. I just want to go home.”

“Where is home?” Ana whispered back.

“Wherever Lexa is. And wherever our friends are. Wherever Aden is. That’s home now,” I replied.

I wasn’t expecting Ana to giggle at that. But she did. Then she laughed. I lifted myself up to lean on my elbow.

“What’s funny?”

“Lexa had a very loud message to deliver to Chuck. She shouted it at her,” Ana explained.

“What happened?” I asked.

Gia sat up in bed behind me and laughed along with her sister. Then she patted my hip and said, “she said that Chuck is getting a little too handsy. Pike tried to tell her you’d been claimed and were happy but Lexa just kept talking over her. Threatened to shoot Chuck with her bow.”

“What’d Chuck do?” I questioned.

“He held up his hands and said he couldn’t help what was happening,” Ana replied. She snorted loudly and added, “that would have been the end of it except Joey, who had a massive black eye and will definitely have two new scars on his face thanks to you, pointed out how talented Chuck’s hands seem to be.”

“Did Lexa kill Joey?” I couldn’t hold that question down. It seemed like an actual possibility.

“No, but Octavia ‘accidentally’ elbowed him in the stomach hard enough to send him to the ground,” Gia said.

With more laughter, Ana was hard to understand when she finished the story with, “then Lexa ‘accidentally’ kicked him in the groin when she offered to help him up. Joey turned green!”

“I think the most important thing Lexa said today was that she meant what she said when she gave you the ring. And that she loves you,” Gia whispered, her voice filling with sleep. “She’s a great girl that Lexa Woods.”

“I know,” I wiped at the tears that I’d let fall during their story, tears from laughter and a few from sadness. I settled back into bed and squeezed Ana’s hand once before releasing it. “I love that man. And I’m going to be home with her soon. Her and Aden.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments! Kudos! Let me know what you think!
> 
> Or come see me on tumblr! imaginaryhistorianme.tumblr.com


	19. Chapter 19

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chuck has come up with a plan to get Clarke home. Clarke isn't going to like it.

After that first talk Chuck came to see me everyday. We’d walk to a secluded part of the compound and talk. He’d fill me in on the inner workings of the raiders, which always included a small discussion about the other men who were chomping at the bit to claim me, and, occasionally, he’d let me know he’d seen someone from The Garrison. He was also the one who’d talk me out of my rages after one of Pike’s visits. The raider leader didn’t come all that often to the PC because he didn’t want people to get the wrong idea but he did enjoy stopping by just often enough to make sure he stayed on my mind. Chuck would always appear within an hour of Pike’s exit; ready to disappear with me to make sure I wasn’t planning anything stupid or dangerous.

Usually Chuck would have Octavia stashed somewhere so I could talk with her. Those were my favorite days. Chuck would collect me from the cabin and we’d disappear into the trees, walking slowly to help build up my muscles again, until we came upon Octavia.

I was only allowed to leave PC if Chuck was with me. I didn’t like the restriction but Chuck assured me it was for my own good. The other men would keep their hands off of me because they feared Pike but they’d gotten used to having what they wanted when they wanted it. He wasn’t sure they’d be able to resist laying hands on me if I was alone.

I’d have been more understanding about the requirement of having Chuck with me if he didn’t insist on always touching me whenever we were alone too. He constantly had to hold my hand or have an arm around me. He swore up and down that it was so others would think we’d become a couple of sorts. I wasn’t always sure I believed him. I went along with it because I knew I needed his help to get back to Lexa and Aden. But every time he was close to me I was threatening him with all kinds of bodily harm through clenched teeth.

I’d been a prisoner for fifty-four days when Chuck came to me with news from The Garrison.

“I saw Harper today,” He said as soon as we reached our bench near the lake.

“Is she okay?” I asked immediately.

Chuck nodded, “everyone is fine. She said to tell you that Sophie moved to The Institute. She wanted more distance between her and her father.”

“She should have stayed with Vaughn,” I muttered. Nyko was a decent leader but he wasn’t Vaughn. His time in the military hadn’t been frontline fighting; he’d been in medical school. “She’d keep her safe.”

“I don’t think Sophie cares about that,” Chuck replied. “Harper also wanted me to tell you to hurry up and get back. She said Lexa is a wreck. She thinks she’s going to be dumb really soon. Her words, not mine.”

I closed my eyes and pictured my girlfriend. Her smile was fading from my mind. Every time Chuck mentioned Lexa to me the smirk I’d always loved so much grew more and more sad.

“I’d be home already if you’d help me like you said you would.”

“We can’t just walk you out of here Clarke. You know that,” Chuck shook his head.

“It’s been almost two months. Your claim is almost up,” I reminded him.

“My claim is only forty-eight days old. We’re only halfway through my claim. That’s plenty of time,” He assured me before he smiled. “People here are talking about us.”

My eyes opened into narrow slits, “talking about us how?”

Chuck considered my out of the corner of his eye before he whispered, “They think we’re in love,”

“I’m going to kill you,” I swore as I closed my eyes again and thought about Lexa.

“It’s a good thing,” Chuck held up his hands when I whipped my head toward him and glared. “I think if I approach Pike about letting you go out on a run with me he may agree. If people think you’ll obey our rules enough to allow yourself to be claimed then he may allow you to leave the compound with me.”

“Allow myself to be claimed?” I growled, “I’m going to kill you and then I’m going to kill Pike.”

“If people fall in love, Pike lets them get married. Give it a few more days and I’ll approach him about it.”

My jaw dropped, “Married? I’m not marrying you.”

“It’s not like it’d be a real marriage. You’ll back with your precious Lexa soon enough. But if you marry me then you can join me on runs. After a few runs we’ll sneak you back to The Garrison and you can be free of me.”

“What about my cousins?” I asked. Our agreement had always been to get the girls out with me. “And Moira and Octavia.”

“Billy is pretending to woo Ana. Our friend Neal has claimed Gia,” Chuck replied. He winced when I elbowed him in the side. I didn’t want to hear about my baby cousin being claimed, even if it was a fake claiming. “They’ll be out in a couple of weeks. That gives us time to come up with a solid plan for getting all of you home.”

I glared as hard as I could at him. My supposed would-be savior. I waited for him to continue, since he’d forgotten to explain his plans for the other two girls. When he didn’t say anything, I prompted him, “You didn’t mention Moira and Octavia.”

“Pike is being really particular about who can claim Moira,” Chuck stared at the ground by his feet. “And he’s come to see Octavia as a trophy of sorts. He’s learned she can be useful since she’d from the area. He knows how much you want to see her. He also knows how much having her back would mean to all of your people.”

“You don’t think he’ll ever give her back?” I hated the uncertainty in my voice.

Chuck sighed, “I think he knows he’s got the best hand at the table right now. He won’t give up his best bargaining chip easily.”

“What aren’t you telling me?”

He sighed, “I don’t think he has any intention of letting Moira be claimed any time soon.”

“We have to think of something,” I said. We had to get that girl out of PC. She wouldn’t survive that environment without my cousins or me there to protect her from Ontari, “I’m not leaving them here.”

“It’ll be difficult but if we can get Pike’s guard down enough, he may let us visit Moira. That could help.”

“I’m not marrying you Chuck,” I declared.

“It’s the quickest way to get you out Clarke. You have to worry about you before you can save the others you know. If you aren’t safe then you can’t keep them safe,” He replied. He rubbed the back of his neck hard before he said, “Besides, it’s not like we’ll have a real wedding or anything. All you have to do is tell Pike you’ve chosen me.”

“No,” I shook my head. I couldn’t see myself ever saying anything like that to Pike. “I won’t do that to Lexa.”

“Lexa wants you safe. Do you really think she’ll care about how you managed to escape?”

“I think that I’ll have to tell her the whole truth when I get back to her and she’ll hate it if I ever speak words of love and fidelity to anyone but her. She wouldn’t blame me but she wouldn’t like it. It would destroy her heart. I won’t do it.”

Chuck’s head bobbed up and down a few times, “What if I tell Pike I’ve picked you and you’ve accepted? You don’t have to say anything. I’ll tell him I told you not to speak unless I give permission.”

I growled at the implications of his words. I had never been a girl who was okay with someone else speaking for her. “Have I ever come across as someone who would be okay with agreeing to keep quiet?”

“No, but love changes people,” Chuck retorted.

“Not that much,” I hissed.

“It’s the best plan for us. For you. We’ll be fine if we can convince him you’ve become so devoted to me that you can’t stand being apart for another night,” His eyes finally met mine.

All I could do was stare at him. I hated his suggestion. I hated the idea of even pretending to pick him over Lexa and Aden and Vaughn and Raven. A large part of me knew Lexa would understand, that she’d never really hold it against me if it meant I got back to her safely. Vaughn would probably encourage me to take the deal. But even as I forced myself to now and told Chuck I’d go along with his plan as long as I didn’t actually have to say anything or make any promises, I knew I’d never forgive myself for agreeing.

Chuck stood and pulled me to my feet. He glanced around quickly before he pulled me in for a long hug, “Joey’s in the trees to my right. Pretend like you actually like to be in my arms.”

Then he kissed me. It wasn’t the first time he’d pressed his chapped lips against mine. I hated it each and every time he did. I forced myself to push everything from my mind, to think of nothing and no one. It hurt less that way, I wouldn’t compare his kisses to Lexa’s if I was actively thinking about nothing. There was no heat, no fire, in Chuck’s kisses. I struggled against the instinct to jerk away from him and smack him across the face. I let him kiss me, and even though I knew I’d hate myself for it, I wrapped my arms around his back.

When Chuck finally lifted his head he smiled down at me, “He’s gone now. He’ll tell Pike what he saw. That’ll help when we ask Pike about getting married.”

“Stop calling it that,” I bit out. I fought the urge to spit and wipe at my lips. “Just get me out of PC so I can go home.”

I started to walk away but Chuck trapped my hand in his. He walked beside me, his hand around my waist holding me securely as he forced me to stroll, “There’s one more thing.”

He didn’t say anything after that, just walked slowly back through the compound. We reached the door to PC and he hugged me again. Then he pressed a kiss to my forehead.

“What else is there?”

He sighed and glanced down at my hands on his shoulders, “You need to give me the ring.”

“Never going to happen,” I growled.

“Pike won’t believe me if I say you want to marry but you’re still wearing Lexa’s ring,” Chuck said softly, smiling down at me like a lover. “So give it to me now and I promise I’ll keep it safe.”

“No,” I pulled away and turned toward the door.

“Then you’ll be stuck here until Pike decides to let you go. That’s something you and I both know will never happen,” Chuck stopped me again. He pressed his lips to my hair just above my ear. “I promise I’ll keep it safe for you. It’ll never leave my pocket.”

“I can’t…” I bowed my head. “It’s been in Lexa’s family forever. I can’t just give it to you like it doesn’t matter to me.”

“If there was another way I’d tell you. There isn’t. Just give me the ring so we can get you and the girls out of here,” Chuck couldn’t hide the irritation in his voice. He couldn’t see the reason I was so reluctant to give up the most meaningful item I owned. To him, it was a temporary situation that would help us escape Pike and the raiders. To me, it was a sign to Lexa that I doubted us, that I doubted her.

I shook my head, “I can’t Chuck, I’m sorry.”

I turned to go into the cabin, wanting to get away from Chuck and his plans. He made it all seem reasonable, like it would be easy to convince Pike I’d throw away my friends and family to become a servant to a guy I’d only known a few weeks. Before I could even open the door Chuck’s hand caught mine in his.

“Don’t fight me on this Clarke,” He held my hand still with an iron grip while he took the ring off my finger.

“Chuck!” I growled. I tried to fold my fingers in. Tried to keep him from his goal.

The ring slipped off easily. Chuck tossed it in the air once then slipped it in his pocket. He winked at me and grinned from ear to ear. Then he stepped too close to me and pinned me against the door with his body and kissed me. I knew it was mostly a show for the raiders, but Chuck was starting to show signs of his affection for me being real. If my hands hadn’t been trapped between us I would have broken his nose.

“I’ll talk to Pike right away!” He announced loudly. “He’ll be so happy to hear our good news!”

Then he was gone, leaving me leaning against the door. The people who strolled by smiled at me, a few whispered to each other. After a moment I stood up straight and held my head high before turning to open the door and entering PC.

Of course Ontari was sitting on the couch, waiting for a report of my time with Chuck. Every time I’d gone out with Chuck she’d wait on the couch for my return. Then she’d follow me to my bedroom, peppering me with questions the whole way, only stopping when I slammed the door in her face.

“How was Charlie?” She asked innocently, as if she hadn’t been watching from one of the windows.

“Fantastic,” I muttered.

I heard her shifting on the couch, preparing to stand and follow as she asked, “What did you guys talk about?”

“Things you wouldn’t understand.” It was hard to not snap at her. I just wanted to be left alone.

“Clarke!” She gasped. She rushed to my side and grabbed my right hand, “You lost your ring?”

“I gave it to Charlie,” my voice was barely more than a whisper. My eyes filled with tears I couldn’t let her see so I blinked them away as quickly as I could.

“Why?” Ontari yanked on my arm, forcing me to face her, “You don’t love him. Are you planning something?”

“Do you really think if I were planning something I’d tell you?” I yanked my arm free. I didn’t want her touching me. I didn’t want anyone touching me. “Charlie wanted me to prove that I care about him. That meant giving him the ring to get rid of.”

“I thought you loved that girl back in your camp,” She almost sounded sad.

“Mind your own business Ontari,” I headed toward my room, knowing I was going to face a million questions from Ana, Gia, and Moira.

“I was rooting for you Clarke,” She spoke quietly. “I thought you’d find a way to help all of us. I didn’t think you’d just give up and let them change you so much.”

I glanced over my shoulder as I walked away, “Maybe you and the other girls should try to help yourselves. I can’t save even save myself from this so how could I save all of you?”


	20. Chapter 20

A week later Pike announced to the compound that I was moving into a new cabin with Chuck, Billy, and Ana. The men in the community were so excited by the news they ran straight to PC and packed our meager belongings for us before hustling us to the new cabin near the lake.

“What just happened?” I asked after we’d settled in for the evening.

“When there are openings in PC it means the guys can go and find new primes to fill the vacancies,” Billy explained.

My head snapped to Chuck, my eyes narrowed as I growled, “you didn’t think to tell me about that?! Now two more girls are going to suffer because Ana and I are here!”

“They’d find a reason to take more girls anyway. At least this way we’ll have you out of here soon. You can rescue the new girls when you come back for Moira,” He assured me. “On a happier note, Pike invited your doctor to visit later. He wants to make sure you and the other primes are all kinds of dolled up for the show. He thinks he’s going to use you as an example of how well his plans are working out.”

“Nyko is coming here?” There was a chance Lexa would be with him as a guard. After being separated for a month and a half, and missing several opportunities to see her when she’d come on other missions, I almost started crying at the idea of seeing her again, “What about Vaughn?”

“I don’t know if she’s coming. And no, I don’t know if Lexa will be part of the delegation either,” Chuck replied. “Which reminds me, there’s a little hidden compartment in the back of your nightstand. Your ring is in there.”

I didn’t even reply as I stood and ran to the bedroom I would be sharing with Ana. I pulled both nightstands away from the wall. I found the little compartment easily and slid it open. My ring sat in the middle of a little cushion. I slid it on my finger and held it against my chest over my heart. Having the ring back made me miss Lexa even more, something I’d thought was impossible.

The door closed, making me look up to see Ana leaning back against it. She smiled when she spotted my ring, “Chuck and Billy said we should take a nap. The delegation isn’t due for a little while and they want us looking refreshed and happy.”

I could only nod. We climbed up on the bed and slid under the blankets. I welcomed sleep, knowing I could be seeing Lexa soon.

****

It felt like my eyes had only been closed for a few minutes when Chuck shook me awake.

“C’mon Clarke. The delegation will be here in a few minutes. You need to get up and get changed and do something with your hair,” He smiled. I watched his lips fall when his eyes landed on my claddagh, “You need to take that off. Pike thinks I threw it in the lake. He can’t see it.”

I nodded and sat up in the bed, “I’ll take it off but I’m keeping it in my pocket during the meeting.”

“You need to hurry,” Chuck wanted to argue, I knew he did. Thankfully he bit his tongue instead.

I dressed quickly and my hair fixed in record time. Ana danced around the room while she got ready, probably for the same reasons. I think we were both secretly hoping that Pike would decide to allow us to go with our friends today. It was beyond unlikely, but hope is almost impossible to fight especially when there is only a shred of it. The less hope you have, the harder you fight to keep it.

Our little group arrived in the square just as the delegation came through the gates. Even from the distance I could recognize Lexa’s chestnut hair gleaming in the sun. I couldn’t see Vaughn or Rob or Harper but Raven was walking just behind Nyko.

I’d been right about seeing Lexa, it was exactly what I needed to renew my hope. I couldn’t tell if she’d spotted me yet so I moved with Ana to the front the gathering crowd.

Finally Nyko and his delegation, made up of eight adults from The Institute and half dozen guards from The Garrison, reached the square and fanned out. I stared at Lexa, willing her to come and stand near me. I knew we couldn’t interact but if she was closer to me, I’d be better. I’d be stronger. Instead she stood almost directly across from me. The familiar sensation of tears burning at my eyes hit me full force. I knew she was playing it cool, trying to show Pike we weren’t what she thought we were but I didn’t like it. I just wanted Lexa near me. I wanted to whisper things to her. I wanted her to whisper things to me.

The thoughts flew through my mind faster than I could recognize them. Then Lexa’s eyes met mine and time froze. She wanted to be near me too. I could see it in her eyes.

Then she winked at me.

I couldn’t hold back the snort of laughter. It was like we were alone in the crowd. She was telling me to be calm and follow Nyko’s lead. I nodded once, a slight movement of my head to let her know I understood. Lexa stiffened in response. My brows came together and I started to look around to see what she’d spotted. Instead, I felt Chuck’s arms wrap around my waist and his chin on my shoulder. All I could do was stiffen and stare at Lexa.

She wasn’t looking at me anymore.

My panic was interrupted by Nyko’s booming voice speaking to Pike, “You asked to see me? Are you ready to give us our girls back?”

“Are you ready to give me back my daughter?” Pike shot back.

“We aren’t holding Sophie hostage. She’s free to come and go as she pleases. She doesn’t want to come back here,” Nyko replied, “She has free will. If you’d like to set up a neutral meeting site then maybe she’d agree to meet with you.”

“She’s my daughter and she will listen to me!” Pike roared.

“I won’t force her to do something she doesn’t want to do,” Nyko shrugged.

Pike shifted on feet and then fisted his hands on his hips, “It isn’t all bad here. Some of your girls even seem to like it here.”

“I doubt that,” Nyko said.

I knew what was coming. I stared at Lexa, willing her to look at me so she could see the truth in my eyes before the lies spewed from Pike’s mouth. Lexa still refused to look at me. Raven even stepped to her left so my view of Lexa was blocked.

“Take a look at your once too proud girl Clarke,” Pike waved a hand in my direction. “She’s agreed to marry our best tracker and hunter, Charlie.”

The arms around my waist squeezed me, reminding me to smile and look happy. I should look like a newly engaged girl, not a girl facing the gallows. I plastered a big smile to my face and placed my hands on Chuck’s forearms. His grip loosened a little when my nails bit into his skin.

“See that?” Pike laughed. “If my way is so bad, why does that girl look so happy?”

“Brainwashing?” Nyko suggested. “Stockholm Syndrome?”

Pike searched through the delegation until he found Lexa. He marched up to her and smiled. Joey forced Raven to take a step back so Lexa could see me, “No need to hide Clarke from her. She needs to get over her sooner or later. Might as well start now. I am sorry Lexa.”

“About what?” Lexa replied, almost too quietly for me to hear.

“She gave that little ring of yours to Charlie. We had a small ceremony and then he threw it in the lake,” Pike clapped a hand down on Lexa’s shoulder. He must have applied pressure because Lexa glanced over at me. Just as her eyes met mine Chuck pressed a kiss to my neck, just below my ear, “I’ve been told the lake isn’t too deep and the water is pretty clear. Maybe when it gets a little warmer I’ll show you where it hit the surface. You can go diving for buried treasure!”

The crowd all laughed at Pike’s jest. They didn’t care that Pike had just told Lexa that I’d allowed her family heirloom to be tossed into a lake like it didn’t matter. They didn’t care that she had no way of knowing how much I loved her and needed her. She had no way of knowing her ring was safely tucked into my pocket.

Lexa swallowed a few times before she said, “guess I picked the wrong girl then.”

If Chuck’s arms hadn’t been holding my waist so tightly I would have collapsed into the dirt. He pressed his mouth to my ear, like he was giving me another kiss but instead he whispered, “calm down Clarke. Lexa doesn’t mean that. She has to know she can’t let Pike see her pain.”

“I’d tell you love birds to get a room but I just gave you a cabin!” Pike laughed. He nudged Lexa with an elbow and winked at her like he’d just told an amazing joke. Then he turned and walked back to Nyko, “So. Now that you know Clarke is okay and happy, let’s talk about my daughter.”

“There isn’t anything to talk about,” Nyko replied evenly. He was looking between Lexa and me, trying to figure out what to do. “She doesn’t want to come back here. It’s been months Charles. Maybe now is the time to admit she isn’t coming back?”

“I want my daughter back. You’re not getting anything from me until Sophie is back home,” Pike shook his head. “There’s no point in continuing these talks if you won’t see reason.”

We were forced to watch helplessly while our friends were escorted away. No amount of arguing from Nyko changed Pike’s mind. The man thought he had the upper hand because he had Ana, Gia, Octavia, and me. In his eyes, all Vaughn had was Sophie. Of course, he never offered to trade the four of us for Sophie. It was always one other girl for Sophie. Never me. Never Ana. Never Gia. Never Octavia. Just some girl Vaughn had never met before. My sister would never take that trade. And I was glad for it, knowing I could do some to protect the girls here but Sophie would be punished for fleeing. We all knew it. We couldn’t let Pike get his hands on his eldest daughter.

****

The next day at dawn a pounding on the door woke me. Ana and I stumbled through the pitch-black cabin to open the door, revealing Josh.

“What do you want?” I hissed.

“Charlie is taking me on a hunt,” he replied as he took a step back. He hated being near me after he saw the scratches on Joey’s face.

“He’s not here,” Billy said from somewhere in the cabin. “He’s at the armory getting the guns. You should have checked there first before you woke our women.”

It took everything in me to stifle the growl the phrase ‘our women’ inspired. It was the twenty-first century and the men around me had reverted back to medieval theories on the rights of women. They saw us as chattel again.

“Well, I had to go and get Octavia up and I wasn’t sure if he’d come back here to say goodbye,” Josh explained quickly. He knew he’d upset Billy.

While Billy wasn’t a hunter like Chuck he was important to the compound because he was a blacksmith. He’d taken it up as a hobby in junior high after a trip to a Renaissance Fair and had honed his skills ever since. Josh knew upsetting the only smith in the compound was a bad idea. Of course he’d offer apologies and explanations quickly.

“What about Octavia?” I asked, ignoring Josh’s simpering.

“Nothing,” Josh shook his head, his eyes not leaving Billy.

“Answer her,” Billy ordered after he yawned. “I’d like to get back to bed soon and that won’t happen if you upset them.”

Josh nodded, obviously thinking that was logical, “Octavia’s going with us. She’s a good tracker and Boss wants to see what she can do.”

“Octavia is going hunting?” I arched a brow at the thought.

I knew my best friend. She hated hunting. Loathed it with a fiery passion. She was a soldier, a fighter. She thought all the hurry-up-and-waiting that goes on during a hunt was the worst thing ever.

“Yes,” Octavia answered my question for Josh, appearing in the open doorway.

“You’re not supposed to be here!” Josh gasped, turning and pushing on Octavia’s shoulders.

“It’s fine, she knows I’m alive already. Why can’t she see me for two seconds?” Octavia huffed.

The others didn’t know I saw Octavia regularly. Chuck was able to hide our meetings easily. Pike had too much faith in him really. Allowed him to come and go as he pleased really.

“There you are!” Chuck called out as he walked up to the cabin. He glanced at me and Ana in the doorway, wearing basketball shorts and tank tops, before turning to glare at Josh, “you woke them?”

“I didn’t know where you were!” Josh held up his hands in surrender.

“And you brought Blake here?” Chuck snapped. “Boss is going to hear about this!”

The men were walking away before Josh could reply. He tossed an apology over his shoulder as he tried to keep up with Chuck and Octavia. Of course the apology was aimed at Billy, completely ignoring the fact he’d woken my cousin and me up as well. It was hard to dislike Josh, he came across harmless, but in that moment I wanted to tackle him to the ground and give him a piece of my mind. With my fists.


	21. Chapter 21

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Clarke is left without much protection when Chuck goes on a hunt with Josh and Octavia. Pike tries to cross too many lines. Uninvited guests show up with the best timing ever.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW: There is an attempt at forced dub consent (as in a third party tries to force a couple...) in this chapter. If that isn't your thing or you can't read things like that, stop reading where you see the ~~~~. You can read again where you see it again.

The hunting trip was meant to be a four-day outing. Four days of being locked inside the cabin unless Billy was around to escort me somewhere. Thankfully, he happily suggested taking me to the smithy with him so I could learn a little bit of his trade. Knowing I’d be bored otherwise, I agreed to tag along. We dropped Ana off at the little school Pike had set up, she was an aide for the teachers there, before heading to the smithy.

The work of a blacksmith was… well… it was hot. The fire was constantly being stoked and fed. I spent hours moving from the flames and coals to the anvil and back again. I peeled off my shirt, leaving me in my sports bra and apron, in the hopes that it would help me cool off a bit. I had no idea where Billy got his metal from but he had plenty of it. He made all kinds of blades with ease. That day though, he walked me through the forging of a dagger. It took hours upon hours. The sun was at its peak by the time he let me stop. I’d been working since just after dawn. I was proud of my blade though. It was a little odd to look at but it would serve its purpose.

We had just started walking toward our cabin when we heard shouts coming from the gates. Following the crowd we pushed our way through to find Josh kneeling just inside the compound.

“What happened?” Billy asked one of the men standing near us.

“Don’t know. Waiting for Boss to figure it out,” the man shrugged. He caught sight of Ana and me then and huffed, “you sure your women should be here for this?”

“They’re fine. Tough women,” Billy replied offhandedly.

The murmurs in the crowd died down when Pike appeared next to Josh. Joey was hot on his heels, bending over Josh with a rag. They talked for a few minutes before Pike’s head snapped up and he glared directly at me.

“Ms. Griffin, could you come here please?” He snapped, his tone not matching his words at all.

I nodded and moved closer to the men. When I was within arms reach, Pike grasped my wrist tightly and pulled me down to kneel next to him.

“Tell her what you told me,” Pike ordered.

“I was checking snares when someone hit me over the head,” Josh whimpered. He pressed the rag to his head. It looked wet, like it had been dipped in water or something. “I have a goose egg now. I couldn’t find Charlie or Octavia when I came to but I did find our camp, which was destroyed. It looked like wild animals had attacked.”

“Okay,” I said slowly. I wasn’t sure why I’d been summoned.

“Josh said he saw a flash of long brownish-red hair before he was attacked. Odd isn’t it?” Pike snarled.

Lexa. Of course. If they’d seen the chance to get Octavia back they would have taken it.

Pike growled when I smirked, “You think this is funny? You think my men being hurt is something to laugh at?”

“I don’t like anyone getting hurt. But I am happy to know they finally got Octavia back,” I replied. I started to stand then but was stopped when Pike’s hand shot out and wrapped around my wrist again. I glanced at his hand, then into his cold eyes, “your laws say no man can touch me once I’ve been claimed. Breaking that law is punishable by a public flogging. Do I get to wield the whip?”

“You can’t – ” Pike started to pull me down to his side again.

“Why are you touching my woman?” Chuck’s harsh biting words interrupted whatever Pike was about to say. “I didn’t give you leave to touch her.”

“I’m in charge here!” Pike insisted.

“Still, you’re a man. Are you saying you don’t have to follow the rules? You’re above our laws?” Chuck reached down and wrenched Pike’s hand off my arm. He turned then, facing me fully. I couldn’t hold back the gasp. Chuck laughed and then grimaced, “yeah. I think it looks as bad as it feels.”

I’d never seen a black eye quite that dark before. It was truly black. His left eye was swollen shut, his nose just a bit crooked.

“What happened?” I asked loudly, my voice an octave higher than usual.

“I ran into Lexa and Raven. They seemed to be very happy to see me. I mean, they were even more happy to see Octavia but yeah… undeniably delighted to see me,” Chuck replied. He hissed when I reached up to poke at his cheekbone. He jerked his head away with a whine and took a step back. “I’m going to go and see Bonnie. Hopefully she’ll be able to… I don’t know… do something with my once absolutely flawless face.”

“Charlie!” Pike shouted before Chuck disappeared into the crowd. “Where is Octavia?”

Chuck’s shoulders fell at the question. He took a moment before glancing back at Pike and saying, “Well, I lost consciousness for a while. I may have a few inches on Lexa but she can throw a punch! If I had to guess I’d say Octavia is with Vaughn Griffin right now. They’re probably gleefully planning your downfall. Making her your personal pet and rubbing her existence in their faces doesn’t seem like such a great idea now, does it?”

****

Once Chuck disappeared into the crowd Billy ushered Ana and me to the cabin. We all knew there were going to be repercussions. Trying to predict the when and the how was the hard part. After pacing around for a while Billy took Ana on a walk, eager to catch up with one of his friends who was pals with Josh and Joey. The hope was that if we knew more about the ambush, we wouldn’t be surprised by whatever Pike was going to throw our way.

I’d been alone in the cabin for mere minutes when there was a knock on the door. According to the rules, no man was allowed to approach our cabin if they knew the men weren’t home. We even had this little green flag like thing Chuck and Billy put up when they left us alone so the others would know when to stay away.

Uncertain, I approached the door. Chuck and Billy had put in this little peephole that we could pull open to check for visitors. As soon as I opened it, Pike’s sneer filled my vision.

“Clarke,” he said.

“Charles,” I replied.

“I’d like to speak with you,” he motioned toward the door. He couldn’t get inside because I’d locked the door when Billy and Ana left.

I shook my head, “the green is up. I’m alone.”

“I don’t want to hurt you. I don’t even want to touch you. I’m old enough to be your father and brunettes have never been my type,” Pike said evenly, like that was reassuring.

“Your rules say you can’t come in,” I argued.

“I thought you said you were above my rules?” Pike said and stepped closer. He must have bent his knees so he could see my face through the peephole. “Well then I’ll just ask you my question like this. Why aren’t you pregnant yet?”

I jerked my head back like I’d been slapped. I hadn’t been expecting that question at all, “Excuse me?”

Pike chuckled at my shock, “you heard me Clarke. Why aren’t you with child?”

“I don’t know.”

“Want to know what I think?” Pike asked. I shook my head adamantly but he continued speaking, “I think you and Charlie have been attempting to trick me. I think he planned to let your friend escape. Maybe he didn’t plan on your girlfriend breaking his pretty face open like that, but he knew Octavia would be out of my control before they returned. I think he’s trying to get you and your cousins out of here. I think he’s even planning on taking Moira with you. And I’m certain you’ve never actually slept with him.”

“No,” I whispered. I wanted to argue harder but I could tell Pike was beyond convinced his guesses were correct.

“Well then I guess you’ll have to prove it to me,” he leered at me. He looked over to the left and smiled. “And here comes Charlie now. Just in time.”

Coming to a stop next to Pike, Chuck glanced between the two of us, “this is sort of inappropriate Boss. That’s twice in one day I’ve caught you almost violating my claim.”

“I think we need to take this inside,” Pike ignored Chuck’s protest.

Soon we were in the living room with the door shut and locked behind us. Chuck was next to me, his hand around my waist and resting on my hip. I had my arms crossed over my chest.

“Now then,” Pike settled on our couch and lifted an ankle up to rest on a knee. “I was just telling Clarke of my suspicions. Since you missed that part, I’ll repeat them. You’ve been a naughty boy Charlie Abernathy. You’ve faked a claim in hopes of helping the Prime escape. You’ve allowed her friend to escape. You’ve been plotting to aid in the escape of her cousins and my youngest daughter. And you’ve been lying about trying to produce new life.”

“Those are some serious claims,” Chuck’s voice was even but his hand shook slightly against my side.

“Good thing I’m certain their true. And since I know they are, I’m going to have to terminate your claim,” Pike sighed, like the thought made him genuinely sad. Then he smiled a little when he met my eyes again, “It’s okay though. Joey has asked to claim her next. After the proper amount of time to ensure my thoughts are all correct, of course.”

I shook my head at that, “over my dead body!”

“Clarke is my claimed!” Chuck protested. “We’re getting married!”

“Well… I guess there could be another way,” Pike scratched at his head like he was thinking.

“And that is?” I didn’t want to ask, I didn’t want to know, but I couldn’t let Joey anywhere near me. I’d kill him if he tried to touch me.

“Prove me wrong,” Pike said simply.

**~~~~**

Chuck’s brows came together in confusion. He stared at Pike, waiting for an explanation. Then he looked at me, trying to see if I understood. I shrugged, I had no idea.

Finally, Chuck turned to Pike again and asked, “What does that mean?”

“Show me how in love you are,” he replied.

“You want me to kiss her?” Chuck forced a weak laugh at that. “You’ve seen us kiss before Pike. I didn’t realize you were a voyeur.”

“I want you to show me exactly how passionate the two of you are when you’re alone. So you’re going to take her into the bedroom and you’re going to try your hardest to put a baby in her. Isn’t that why you claimed her?” Pike elaborated.

The man wanted us to have sex. At that moment. While he waited for us. I had no words.

“You want us to go and have a quickie while you sit in our living room?” Chuck questioned.

“Oh no,” Pike shook his head and chuckled. “I’ll be with you every step of the way. I need my proof. Any girl can fake a good time. Any guy can fake a few grunts. I want to see this with my own eyes.”

“Excuse me?” I protested immediately.

Pike’s dissecting gaze shifted back to me. He narrowed his eyes and pursed his lips. After a moment he asked, “problem Clarke?”

“If you think for one minute that I – ”

**~~~~**

Once again a knock on the door interrupted my day. I didn’t even wait to see how Pike or Chuck would react to the disruption. I turned on my heel and marched to the door. I threw it open to find Joey standing there with his fist up, like he’d been about to knock again.

“Clarke!” He jumped back and grabbed the strap of his rifle with both hands.

I wasn’t sorry that he had been a little wary of me ever since I’d attacked him. The two new scars on his cheek always made me smile and my smile always made him grimace.

“What do you need Joey?” Pike appeared behind me. “We’re in the middle of something here.”

“I’m sorry Boss,” Joey apologized quickly. “The Doc is here though, with a whole bunch of his people. They’re demanding to see you.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments and kudos welcome and encouraged!
> 
> Come see me! Leave a comment/prompt/say hi/whatever! (Yes, I take prompts that aren't Clexa related BTW. Just send me a message or something and ask, I'll probably say yes!)
> 
> imaginaryhistorianme.tumblr.com


	22. Chapter 22

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The end of Pike has finally arrived!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I live for comments and kudos. They really help with motivation!

For once Nyko didn’t waste time with pleasantries. The doctor already had his pistol drawn, tapping it against his leg, when we arrived in the square in front of Ona’s cabin. He hardly gave Pike any time to get situated before he asked, “One last time, are you sure you won’t give us our girls?”

“Positive. I won’t even consider it until my daughter is back in the compound,” Pike replied. He was obviously confused by the abruptness of Nyko’s question. He was used to the cat-and-mouse game they usually played.

Nyko nodded once and sighed, “Alright then. Have it your way.”

The doctor raised a hand over his head and made a circle in the air as he whistled loudly. Suddenly, the entire delegation had guns pointed at Pike. Then the sound of boots running up the paths echoed around the square. More of the kids from The Garrison appeared, guns pointed at Pike’s guards.

“I tried to play by your rules. But you refused to give any ground. You can’t be a leader if you aren’t willing to lead. You wanted only what you wanted and couldn’t have cared less what your people needed,” Nyko had his pistol pointed at Pike’s chest. “So now I’m done trying to be reasonable. Put your hands behind you.”

Pike reached for his own pistol but Lexa moved quickly. She grappled with the older man until Raven could make her way over to help. They had his hands behind his back and cuffed before he could put up any kind of real resistance.

“Octavia might have let it slip how low on ammunition you are,” Nyko stage whispered to Pike. He cocked his gun and added, “we don’t have that issue.”

“You can’t do this! You have no power here!” Pike growled.

Nyko glanced around, “No one seems to be trying to stop us. Guess they know when they’re quite literally outgunned.”

“This is my home!” Pike struggled against Lexa and Raven, trying to break free.

“No. This is our home. You were uninvited guests. We’ve decided to evict you,” Raven corrected him.

Before Pike could reply, Lexa tied a strip of cloth around his head, silencing him. With a small smile, Nyko pointed down the path that led to PC and BC. Lexa and Raven each held one of Pike’s arms as they led the way down the path. The other kids from The Garrison were ordering raiders to surrender their weapons. Most gave up their knives, bows, and guns easily. Joey and Josh tried to resist but after a hit or two from a rifle butt they surrendered.

Other kids ran ahead of us, banging on doors and demanding people make their way to the square. Soon the compound was all cleared except for PC and BC. The younger girls huddled together as Ana and I coaxed them out of the cabin. Ana let them form a little circle around her as she led them back up the path to the square. I could hear the yells of parents and the shrieks of girls as they were reunited.

I stepped up to the door of PC and glanced at Lexa. She was staring at a little carving she’d made in a log next to the door, ‘LW+CG’ surrounded by a heart. There was a little ‘A’ carved underneath too, Aden’s handiwork from when he decided he needed to be represented too.

The door opened and Ontari flew out, nearly knocking me over in her haste to get around me. She ran to one of the women from The Institute and started sobbing. Other girls came out and made their way to the square. Gia was the last to appear, with Moira glued to her side. I wrapped them in my arms and assured them we were safe. Ana made it back from her trip to the square in time to join our little group hug.

The large crowd was about to go back to the square to figure out the next step when Chuck tapped Nyko on the shoulder. He pointed at the cabin Lexa and Octavia had built, “There’re more girls in there. Young ones.”

I shook my head, knowing what he meant. Ana and I took off running to the house, barely slowing down to open the door. There was an older woman; she was maybe in her forties, blocking the door to Lexa’s old bedroom.

“Boss said no one is to know about them!” She shrieked over and over again.

“Boss isn’t the boss anymore. There are going to be changes now,” I held my hands out in front of me. I didn’t think the woman had a weapon but I wanted her to think I wasn’t a threat.

“Boss said no!” She shook her head rapidly.

“Mom?” Moira spoke from behind us.

My eyes almost popped out of my head, “I thought your mom was dead?”

“Daddy told us she died. But that’s Mom,” Moira stepped up next me. “She has Mom’s wedding ring on. And Mom had a tattoo on the front of her shoulder like that one.”

“But… Sophie said…” I didn’t know what to think.

“Sophie?” The woman whispered. “Boss said he’d hurt Sophie and Moira if I tried to leave. I had to hide from them. They hate me.”

“Mom?” Moira stepped closer to her, “It’s me, Moira. I don’t hate you.”

“Boss said no!” The woman yelled again, this time with less venom in her voice.

“Boss is Dad. And the good guys are taking him away,” Moira said. She stepped closer to her mother, “We’re okay. Sophie and I are okay and Dad is going away. You’re okay.”

“Boss is leaving?”

“Yes. He’s leaving. You’re okay Mom,” Moira cried and launched herself at her mother.

I thought the woman was going to throw Moira off of her and start screaming again. Instead she stood still as a statue while the girl wrapped her arms around her waist.

“Moira?” The woman put her hands on Moira’s shoulders and pushed, “is it you Moira?”

“Yes Mom. It’s me. You’re safe now,” Moira cried.

“You’ve been here all this time?” Her mother asked.

Moira nodded against her mother’s shoulder, “Dad said you died. Then he tried to lock Sophie and me up. Clarke and her friends are helping us.”

“Safe?” Mrs. Pike sighed. “Finally safe?”

Moira assured her mother over and over again that they were all safe. She promised to send for Sophie as soon as possible. Slowly, she coaxed her mother into leaving the cabin. Mrs. Pike was reluctant to be in the sun because Pike hadn’t allowed her outside during the day in over a year. He swore if she even opened a curtain to let sunlight hit her skin he’d make sure their daughters paid for it.

Ana and I watched Moira help her mother out of the cabin before freeing the six young girls, who couldn’t have been older than ten, from their room. We led them outside and allowed Moira and her mother to take them up to the square.

As we followed the girls up the path, Pike managed to get his gag lose enough that he could yell around it.

“Kill them! Kill the traitors!” He shouted at any of his people we passed along the way.

He repeated the words the whole way up the path. He barked them, bellowed them, and whispered them. He ordered his guards to wipe our entire colonies off the face of the Earth. Once we reached the square, Nyko led Pike to Ona’s cabin.

Pike was still yelling, “You cowards! They have your leader in their grasp and you do nothing to save him! Boss demands you kill them and set him free!”

Still nobody moved.

“Cowards! Weaklings! Deserters! Renegades!” Pike yelled, “Traitors! You aren’t fit to live!”

One of the men, Pike’s biggest guard stepped forward. He approached Pike slowly, studying Lexa and Raven.

“Finally! Someone brave enough to save his Boss!” Pike smiled.

The man shook his head and raised his hand. He was holding a pistol. Before Lexa or Raven could react the man pulled the trigger. Pike collapsed to the dirt, blood pouring out of the hole in his chest. The man spin the gun around on his finger and offered it to Raven with a sad smile.

“Boss… I mean, Pike told me my little girl died from a dog attack while I was on a hunting trip,” he said sadly. “I had no idea she was in that cabin the while time.”

Chaos reigned then. There were shouts from the raiders, those loyal to Pike anyway. The women were screaming and trying to hustle the children away from the violence. The children were refusing to budge, convinced if they went into a cabin, they wouldn’t be allowed to leave again. The shouts grew louder and angrier. Raiders were running toward the piles of guns they’d surrendered.

I started to make my way through the crowd. I wanted a weapon, something to defend myself if things got even more ugly. I screamed when a hand wrapped around my wrist. I whirled around to find Chuck pulling me away from the square.

“Let me go!” I dug my heels into the dirt path.

“Too dangerous,” Chuck shook his head. “You don’t need to see all that.”

“Charles Abernathy! You had better let me go right now!” I yelled. “I’m not your responsibility!”

“Clarke, I’m just trying to keep you safe.”

“I can keep me safe,” I yanked my arm free. He lunged toward me. I ducked under his arm and kicked out my leg. I caught him in the groin, “I swear to whatever deity you worship, if you grab me again I’m going to hurt you worse than that.”

I took off toward the gun pile again, determined to arm myself. The whole way I frantically searched the crowd for Lexa. I yelled her name over and over again, wanting nothing more than to see him and assure myself she was okay.

Suddenly, someone opened fire. I couldn’t tell where the gunshot came from but people were scattering. More shots followed the first, volley after volley sent one way then another as the loyal raiders tried to force my people from the compound. I heard a bullet whiz passed my ear. I hardly even ducked, knowing if a bullet had my name on it, I was dead anyway. Then I found myself on the ground.

I did a quick inventory of my body. Nothing felt like it was on fire like it had during the attack in the field. So I hadn’t been shot. Then I realized I couldn’t breathe. I turned my head and looked over my shoulder. Lexa was on top of me, covering my body with hers. I tried to tell her I was okay but she shook her head and looked around, searching for something.

As much as I wanted to struggle out from underneath Lexa, if only so I could protect her with my body, I knew she wasn’t going to let me move. I concentrated on willing the bullets flying all over the place to miss the two of us.

The ground shook a little as a woman fell next to me. She was raider. I’d seen her around while Chuck and I had gone on our walks. She’d been one of the women to mend a shirt for me. She stared at me with wide crystal blue eyes. Her mouth was opening and closing, like she was trying to say something but couldn’t remember what it was. Then I saw the blood on her neck. From what I could see, she’d been shot through her neck. She was drowning in her own blood.

I reached out a hand and grasped hers tightly. I didn’t know her name. But she was a person. She shouldn’t have to die like that. She shouldn’t die a violent death because a man thought he could build a harem for himself and his men.

I stared into her eyes and talked while she died. I couldn’t even remember what I was telling her. Anything and everything that popped into my head was fair game. Just after the last bullet rang out, she gasped for the last time and her hand relaxed in mine.

I was still staring at the woman when Lexa scrambled off me. She bent down and offered a hand to help me to my feet. Once I was standing again I started to talk to her. She shook her head and walked away.

People wasted little time in starting to clean up the mess from the gun battle. Nyko met with the new leader of the raiders, the tall man who had killed Pike. The new leader, John, assured Nyko that the raiders would change their ways. They wouldn’t kidnap girls anymore. He also promised his group would work with both The Institute and The Garrison to ensure all our people stay safe from then on.

Whether we believed him or not didn’t matter, Nyko was eager to get our girls out of the compound. We left quickly, taking half the weapons and ammunition we’d confiscated with us. Moira and her mother joined us, eager to be away from Pike’s legacy and even more eager to be reunited with Sophie.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really thought about having Raven blowing something up or having Lexa/Clarke/Octavia/Raven/Vaughn kill Pike. Honestly though, I didn't want blood on their hands. So let me know what you think!
> 
> Come say hi over on my tumblr!


	23. Chapter 23

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Clarke finally gets back to The Garrison. She's reunited with Vaughn and Aden.
> 
> Clexa has a talk.

The walk back to The Garrison was a lonely one for me. I had Ana to keep me company but Lexa passed the time by walking with Raven and Gia a few yards ahead of us. I tried to talk to her a few times but each time she’d walk a little faster.

That night was the first time I was really thankful The Garrison was so close to Oak Openings. We made it to our neighborhood by the time the sun was touching the horizon. While others made arrangements for the night, I headed straight for my house. Vaughn, Harper, Octavia, and Rob were in the kitchen eating dinner when I burst into the house.

All I could do was offer a small wave as I ran for the stairs and raced to my room. I changed into clean clothes and splashed some water on my face before I jumped into my bed and pulled the blankets up to my chins. I instantly wished I hadn’t, my pillow and blankets smelled like Lexa.

Tears threatened then. I sniffled a couple of times; fighting the crying session I knew was coming. Then Vaughn appeared in the doorway, looking all ‘big-sister-concerned’ and frowning.

“Clarke?” She whispered.

“Not now Vaughn,” I warbled and rolled onto my side, showing her my back.

“I thought I’d never see you again,” She said as she approached my bed. She pulled back the blankets and slid under them. She took a few seconds to arrange the blankets over us before she wrapped me in her arms and squeezed, like she couldn’t believe I was really there, “You’re home!”

“I can’t talk about it right now,” I cried. “I’m okay, just… overwhelmed.”

“It’s been 62 days since I saw you last Clarke. It’s October seventeenth! I just need to be sure you’re really here this time,” Vaughn responded. She brushed a hand over my hair and sighed before saying, “we don’t have to talk about it right now though. You can cry. I’ll be here when you’re done.”

And so cry I did. Huge body-wracking sobs broke through my control. I whimpered and sobbed for what felt like hours. Throughout it all Vaughn stayed next to me, talking to me about memories from our childhood and what we’d do when we finally found our family. At one point Raven came in and gently kissed my hair before running from the room. Tears scared her sometimes.

By the time I was done crying the moon was in the middle of the sky. Vaughn was telling me about her trip to boot camp, how she’d been nervous and excited, basically she’d been a jumble of nerves.

“You refused to say goodbye to me,” She said. “Do you remember that?”

“I didn’t want you to leave. I didn’t think I’d see you again,” I sniffled.

“But you did. I’ll always find you Clarke,” She pressed a kiss to my forehead and sat up. “But knowing you were gone and I didn’t get to say goodbye was one of the worst things I’d ever gone through. That’s why I couldn’t go today. I knew if I saw you and couldn’t bring you home I’d kill every single person in that compound.”

“I got kidnapped Vaughn, I didn’t join the military,” I rolled to my other side so I could look at her.

“It’s the closest analogy I could come up with,” She shrugged. “The look on your face just before I got on the plane was burned into my memory Clarke. The anger and hurt you felt that day got me through my training. I had to make sure I made my training worth your anger toward me.”

I smiled, “I think, given how good you are with recon and planning, you made it worth it.”

“I hope so. I wanted to make sure I made you proud.”

The door opened and Lexa walked in. I stared at her for a moment before looking back to Vaughn, “I’ve always been proud of you. Even when I hated you for leaving me.”

“I know,” She said. “I’ve always been proud of you too. Even when all I’ve done is griped and cleared my throat.”

She wiped the tears from my face and climbed out of my bed. She crossed the room quickly, stopping next to Lexa. She glanced back at me, then at Lexa. She looked at her and raised a brow. She nodded once and left the room, closing the door behind her.

“Hi,” I said quietly. You’d think after weeks and weeks apart I’d have a better greeting than that. But the simple greeting was all that came to mind.

Lexa shook her head and disappeared into the closet. She reappeared minutes later wearing a pair of basketball shorts and a sports bra, tossing a t-shirt over her shoulder. She sat on the edge of my bed and stared at the floor.

“Can’t you let me explain?” I whispered.

She shook her head again.

I sniffled, fighting the tears off, “But I need to!”

“There’s no need,” She glanced at me over her shoulder.

Three words? That’s it. I hated when she was quiet. It was never a good sign, “There’s every need.”

“Griffin…” She sighed.

“Don’t! Don’t you dare call me Griffin right now!” I wanted to throttle her. I knew she was using my last name to try to distance herself from me.

“Fine,” Lexa sighed. She turned so she was facing me as she said, “Clarke. You really don’t need to explain anything.”

“Lexa,” Although I was beyond relieved she’d faced me, I couldn’t look her in the eye so I glared at the wall over her shoulder. “I know what you saw. I know what you must think.”

“I think you did what you needed to do to survive. I get that,” She shrugged.

I shook my head, “No! It’s not like that!”

“I’m not mad,” Lexa shrugged. “It was what it was.”

“Don’t be all resigned about this!” I yelled, finally frustrated enough to meet her eyes. “Fight with me!”

“Why?” She yanked her shirt on.

“Why should you fight for me?”

Lexa held up her hands, “You said fight with me. Not fight for me.”

“Do both!”

“Why?”

I stared at her. Shouldn’t she know the answer? “Evermore Lexa.”

Suddenly Lexa smiled and nodded, “That’s right Clarke, evermore. You’re here. You’re okay. And I’m here and I’m okay too. We’re okay.”

“How can you say that?”

Lexa shrugged, “Because I know nothing really happened.”

“How?”

“You love me,” She winked and crawled into bed over the blankets. She stretched out and put her hands behind her head.

“Of course I do,” I couldn’t understand what was going on. I knew she’d seen Chuck’s arms around my waist the day before. She’d seen Chuck kiss my neck. She’d seen Chuck trying to protect me when the fighting and shooting started. “You really saw it all?”

Lexa nodded. Her smile slipped a little when she met my eyes, “Every last peck Griffin. I spent a lot of time in our old perches.”

“I’m sorry!” I groaned and covered my face with my hands.

“I just told you it’s okay. I’m not mad. I may punch that guy if I ever see him again but the girls told me all about what happens to pretty girls in the compound. Sophie said she and Chuck made a deal so she’d be protected. I figured out pretty quickly that’s what you had done too.”

I spoke through my hands when I said, “I felt horrible every second of it all Lexa.”

Pulling my hands away from my face, she winked and wiggled her way underneath the blankets. She held her arms open to me. “I love you.”

I resisted for all of two seconds. Then my head was on her shoulder, my arms thrown over her stomach, my hand finding its way under her shirt and up to her chest over her heart, and my legs tangled with her. The sigh I let out was almost pure contentment. “You really know nothing happened?”

“You love me,” Lexa repeated as she wrapped me in her arms.

“You trusted me,” I said. I smiled and burrowed deeper into her warmth.

Lexa laughed and nodded, “Yes, I did. But if you ever take this off again, I’ll super glue it to your finger,” She held up my claddagh. “Chuck gave it to me when we met up in the forest. Thank you for not letting him throw it in the lake.”

“I would never have let Chuck do that,” I said. “He made me take it off. It was part of his plan to get me, Ana, Gia, and Moira out of Oak Openings.”

I held up my right hand so Lexa could slide the ring back on. She shook her head and my heart jumped into my throat. Maybe she didn’t want to give the ring back to me. But hadn’t she just said I wasn’t allowed to remove it ever again?

Lexa kissed each finger on my right hand before lowering it back to my side. Then she picked up my left hand and slid the ring on.

“We aren’t married Lexa,” I said nervously.

“No, but if you remember what I told you when I gave you the ring, if it is on your left hand with the heart pointed out it means you’re engaged,” She replied and pressed a kiss to the back of my hand.

“So we’re engaged then? That’s your way of proposing?” I giggled. “No kneeling?”

“I’m too busy trying to wrap you in my arms and hold you until dawn. Do you want me to get out of bed and kneel? I will if you want me to,” she sighed at the very thought.

“Don’t you dare move!” I grabbed her arm as she started to throw back the blankets.

“No moving? That isn’t much fun,” She winked at me again as she settled onto her side. Her eyes roamed across my face over and over again, like she was memorizing me.

“Well, you can wrap me in your arms and hold me until dawn. I’m okay with that,” I smiled.

She shifted onto her back and pulled me into her embrace. In fact, she pulled until I was practically on top of her. She squeezed and sighed, like she was perfectly content. We fell into one of our old silences, neither of us feeling the need to speak. Just being together, especially after our forced separation, was amazing.

I couldn’t say how long we held each other in silence. Minutes? Hours? I didn’t care. It would never be long enough to make up for the time we’d lost because of Charles Pike.

Lexa ran her hand up my arm. She took my chin between her thumb and her forefinger and tilted my head back, “I don’t know if I’ve told you yet Clarke Griffin, but I really do love you. And those weeks without you were the worst of my life. Don’t ever do that to me again.”

“I will try to not get kidnapped again Lexa Woods,” I winked at her. “And I love you too.”

She kissed me then. Gently at first, like she was relearning the contours of my lips, then harder, like she couldn’t help herself. Kissing her again, being in her arms again, it felt like I was coming up for air after almost drowning. I don’t know how, but I’d forgotten how much I loved to kiss Lexa Woods.

Finally, when I thought my lungs would burst from the lack of oxygen, Lexa lifted her head. She settled back into the pillow and sighed, “so much better than I remember.”

“I love you Lexa,” I said.

“Evermore,” She replied.

We fell into silence again. After a little while Lexa kissed me again. Then we relaxed in silence. Then I got tired of waiting for the next kiss so I initiated it. We spent most of the night like that, until Raven came to the room to go to bed.

She knocked loudly on the door. When Lexa told her to enter she opened the door and stepped inside, Octavia by her side. Their hands were over their eyes.

Octavia smirked as she asked, “Are you decent?”

“Who?” I asked.

“Both of you. I don’t need any more images burned into my memories today,” Raven replied.

“We’re decent Raven,” Lexa replied.

They dropped their hands and jumped onto Raven's bed. My cousin studied me for a moment before wiggling her brows, “Are you done making up? I want to go to sleep.”

“For now we are,” I laughed.

“Ugh,” Raven faked a gag.

Lexa and Raven spent the next little while filling Octavia and me in on the developments that had taken place at The Garrison while I’d been gone. The biggest development was Vaughn actually being nice to Lexa. Apparently my sister finally believed my girlfriend loved me after seeing how crushed she’d been when I was kidnapped. After Lexa had been to see me while I was unconscious Vaughn said she knew she’d been completely honest about loving me.

Raven sighed after a stretch of silence, “Are you mad too?”

“About what?” I asked.

“Yes,” Lexa replied to my cousin. Then she met my eyes again and added, “She meant about me not killing Charles Pike.”

“Why are you mad about that?” I couldn’t believe they were mad they hadn’t killed him.

“He took you Clarke. I wanted to end him,” Lexa said.

“Only Vaughn was able to convince her to not be stupid. She calmed her down,” Raven explained when I looked back at her. “I thought Lexa would be the one to kill him today. We even told Nyko that was our plan.”

“Well I’m glad it wasn’t you,” I said. “You don’t need his blood on your hands Lexa.”

“It wouldn’t be on my hands. It’d be on his.”

“Still, it’s better this way. That John guy seems to actually want to make changes. If you’d killed Charles, there would have been a power struggle. The men out there will respect John for killing Charles. It worked out for us.” I was certain of all of that. Lexa showing the strength needed to end Charles Pike's life would have left no clear leader at Oak Openings. The power struggle that would have resulted would most certainly have effected us.

“I still wish it’d have been me,” Lexa bit out. “To pay him back for hurting you. He deserved to suffer for everything he did. Not just for what he did to you and Octavia, but what he did to his wife and his daughters and all those other girls.”

“Forget about him Lexa. He doesn’t deserve to be remembered by us,” I insisted. The last thing I wanted, the last thing we needed, was for Charles Pike to become a fixture in our minds. “So wipe him out of you mind. Just know that I’m back with you and I’m not planning on going anywhere again,”

****

The next morning I was awakened by a yell and a solid something landing on my stomach. I opened my eyes to find Aden sitting on top of me, staring down at my face.

“Clarkey?” He poked my cheek.

“Aden,” I poked him in his stomach.

“Clarkey!” He fell on top of me and wrapped his arms around my neck.

I returned the embrace and cried. I’d dreamt of being reunited with him every night just as I’d dreamt of being in Lexa’s arms again.

“Are you here for good now?” Aden asked, his little voice loud in my ear.

“If I have any say in it then I’m never going anywhere without you again,” I held him tighter.

“Good. It was sad without you here Clarkey. Lexa was sad all the time,” Aden sat back up. “Everyone was sad.”

I ruffled his hair and grinned, “It’s okay. You all missed me. But I’m back now. So we don’t need to be sad anymore.”

“Okay!” He chirped. He leaned over and grabbed my journal off the nightstand, “V helped me keep track of days for you, so you wouldn’t lose your spot. Want to mark off yesterday?”

“V?” I repeated.

“Yeah, she said if you get a nickname then she does too,” he explained with a one-shouldered shrug. Then his eyes met mine, round with worry, “Is that okay?”

“It’s fine. I’m just glad you like her,” I grinned and hugged him again.

I helped him mark off the day before. Smiling as he chattered on and on about all the things I’d missed. He told me about Lexa being sad but that it didn’t stop Lexa from spending time with him. He told me about Raven perfecting something that made a loud boom. Then he told me about Harper and her new mystery boy. Aden didn’t know his name but he was determined to find out. He wanted to make sure the boy was good enough for his Harp. He didn't have mush to say about Octavia, she'd only been back a day or so. He was just happy to have her around again.

“I heard you’ve been practicing your archery skills with Lexa,” I said when then there was finally a lull in Aden’s long-winded speech.

“I’m not very good,” his chin dropped to his chest.

“So we’ll practice and get better together. I’m not very good either,” I reminded him.

The boy rolled his eyes, “that’s because you and Lexa spend more time kissing than you do practicing.”

“How much time have you been spending with V?” I narrowed my eyes at him.

“Not much,” he replied shyly.

“Oh?” I quirked a brow and smirked at him. “Just enough to track a deer ten miles and field dress it with her?”

Aden scoffed at me then. He must have spent a lot of time with Vaughn. He had picked up on so many of her mannerisms. He let out a very heartfelt sound sigh before he said, “you’ve been home for less than a day and you’re already being nosy Clarkey.”

“My my,” I ruffled his hair and laughed at his pleas for me to stop. “Someone has some pent up snark.”

And just like that things with Aden were back to normal. Like we’d never missed a beat.


	24. Chapter 24

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Last Chapter! Sort of an epilogue. Enjoy!

The Garrison was filled with activity for weeks after my rescue. We had meetings with the raiders, who asked to be called Oakers, and The Institute people came and went freely. We refortified the walls and built more guard towers. We prepared for winter as best we could; we knew it probably wouldn’t be as easy as the last few had been so we had stores of food built up. Raven, Harper, Aden and I were teaching people tracking and hunting skills.

I was in the back yard, working on archery with Lexa and Aden, when Rob came running out of the house yelling my name.

“What’s wrong?” I found myself caught up in Rob’s large arms.

“Vaughn is waiting for you inside. There are three people approaching the gate.” He answered. “Sophie mentioned that one looked a bit familiar but she couldn’t say how.”

“Three people?” Lexa repeated.

Rob lowered me back onto my feet and released me, “Sophie found them in town. They asked her if they knew any of the Griffins. When she said she did, they asked her where to find you. Sophie started to explain but they didn’t need directions. She ran ahead to tell you they’re approaching.”

“Who are they?”

“They didn’t give any names. But they want to meet you and Vaughn at the gate.”

I took off running, Lexa and Rob on my heels. I met Vaughn at the door and together we all ran for the gates. We climbed the guard tower and waited for the group to approach.

We hadn’t been waiting long when Chuck appeared in front of the gates. He was dragging a buck on a stretcher behind him, “Hey Clarke!”

Lexa stiffened next to me. I rolled my eyes and waved back at Chuck, “What do you want Chuck?”

“This thing weighs a ton. You all were closer than home. I figured I could gut it here, then take most of the meat home and leave the rest for you guys,” He explained. “Work for you, your highness?”

“Let him in!” Vaughn called down to the guard, “Take him to the smoke house.”

Soon Chuck disappeared with his deer and we went back to watching for the three mystery people. It seemed like hours passed before they actually appeared. They were riding some sort of weird combination of a bike and cart. I was too busy studying their mode of transportation to pay much attention to who was operating it. Then Vaughn grabbed my wrist and held tightly.

“Ouch!” I yelped and yanked my arm away, “What?”

She pointed at the approaching vehicle, “Look!”

“I know. It’s cool,” I glanced back at the bike thing. Then I did a double take.

“Is that…” Lexa started to speak.

“Bennet!” I yelled.

“Caitín!” Lexa shouted at the same time.

Somehow I made it down the ladder safely and running as fast as my legs would move, luckily the guards opened the gate before I ran into it. With Vaughn at my side we met our sister in the street.

“I can’t believe you’re here!” I said over and over again as I hugged Bennet.

“What am I? Chopped liver?” My cousin Rocco, Raven’s older brother, spoke from behind us.

I hugged him too and then sent him to the house so he could find his sister.

“What are you doing here?” Vaughn squeezed us into another hug.

“Dad wants to know why you haven’t found us yet,” Bennet laughed. “He said he told Rick to tell you where to go.”

“Rick did tell me. But the message was cryptic. I had no idea what it meant until Vaughn got here and explained,” I laughed.

I filled my sister in on everything that had happened since Vaughn’s arrival. I promised to tell her all about my trip back from DC soon.

Bennet was in awe of my kidnapping story. She just stared at me and shook her head, “How did you deal with it Clarke?”

“I knew I had some special people waiting for me,” I shrugged.

As if she knew that was her cue, Lexa approached our little group with her sister and draped an arm over my shoulders, “Everything okay Griffin?”

“Lexa Woods?” Bennet’s jaw dropped.

Caitlín had the same reaction when she saw me, “Really Lexa? Clarke Griffin? Finally?”

“It’s fine Lexa. Just getting reacquainted,” I wrapped an arm around her waist, hooking my finger through a belt loop on her jeans. I smiled shyly at Lexa’s little sister, “hello Caitlín.”

“She said it right!” The younger girl gasped.

Bennet took us in before turning to Vaughn, “They look cozy.”

“It’s okay. She’s good people,” Vaughn replied.

Bennet studied our eldest sister for a moment before she shrugged, “if you say so.”

“Where’s Mom?” Caitlín asked Lexa.

“I’m so sorry Cat. She… She died shortly after we got home,” Lexa replied quietly. She held her free arm out for her sister, offering what little comfort she could.

Caitlín took her up on it immediately, crying into her shoulder while Lexa whispered into her hair.

Lexa sniffled and closed her eyes before leaning her check against her little sister’s head. She swallowed a few times, working up to speaking. Then she spoke softly, no one other than Caitlín and I could hear her words. “She was sick. I got to say goodbye. And tell her I love her. A lot of people lost their whole families. At least I knew my brothers and sisters are out there somewhere. I’m chose to believe you were all together and fine.”

“Of course we are,” Caitlín lifted her head and met Lexa’s eyes. She pulled her brows together in confusion, like that was obvious.

“They’re with our family, in Wyoming,” Bennet added.

“Like I told you they would be,” Vaughn said a little smugly.

Caitlín smiled slyly at Vaughn and wiggled her brows, “Ilian says hello by the way.”

“He wanted to come with us but we all agreed Gustus needed one of his parents with him,” Bennet said.

“So everyone knows?” Vaughn sounded a little relieved at that.

“Yeah we do!” Caitlín lifted a hand for a high-five.

Ignoring the offering, Vaughn turned to Bennet, “so what is the plan?”

“We need to settle in for the winter. As soon as it’s clear enough, we’re heading back to Wyoming. Clarke, Vaughn, Lexa, and Raven are coming with us,” Bennet said.

“You’re going to need to plan on a bigger party than that,” Vaughn replied.

“The more the merrier!” Caitlín replied.

“At least we have horses,” I pointed out. I liked the look of the vehicles they’d ridden in on but I had almost no desire to actually ride one.

Lexa nodded, “and the carts. I’m sure we can take one. Make things easier for Aden.”

“So…” I glanced around at my family. I took in their smiling expectant faces. “Step one, make it through the winter. Step two, survive an actual cross-country trip Oregon Trail style. Step three, reunite with our family.”


End file.
